Fire Lily
by Karen Elaine DuLay
Summary: 150 after the War, unrest has once again consumed the Four Nations. Li, one of the new Team Avatar's members, has been sent to another world by the spirits in lieu of her almost-death. Only, this new world is...well, it's... rated T for gore and and such
1. Dying

Li panted for breath, glaring at the figure before her. Meiko, the Waterbending Master who had joined the side of evil in this fight, stared back. Around them, three people lay prone, unconscious or worse—no, please not worse, anything but worse. Liandao Shui, once Meiko's fellow student, lay almost at Meiko's feet, blood oozing from a cut on her forehead. Hong Kairong, the insane Earthbending prodigy from Ba Sing Se, was pinned to a wall, icicles shoved through his hands, shoulders, and thighs. And Ru, Li's oldest friend, the only constant she had ever known, lay slumped against a wall, barely breathing, her stomach almost ripped open.

"You've put up a good fight, Princess." Meiko purred, practically slinking her way over to Hong. The young man—boy, really—was still conscious, but only just, fighting to stay awake in lieu of a concussion. "But you should've known better than to face me at night. This night, especially, when the full moon bolsters my powers even further to the point where I can Bloodbend multiple enemies at once." She traced a finger along one of the icicles pinning Hong to the wall, gathering watered-down blood on her fingertip.

Li fought to keep a grip on her shukusen, to prevent herself from falling over in exhaustion. It had been a long battle, lasting for nearly an hour before Liandao, their only protection against Meiko's Bloodbending, had been struck down. She had managed to escape the worst of Meiko's attacks thanks to Ru, who had been able to shield Li—but now Ru was in dire straights, almost dead. Thanks to Li.

"Well, I suppose I should do what I was sent to do." Meiko sighed. "You see, I don't care about your friends. They're not the problem. What are they, commoners, with no claim to the thrones of any of the Four Nations, in the grand scheme of things?" She waved a hand, and pulled water from the air. "But you…..you're the child of the Fire Lord. Officially, his firstborn, though everyone knows that's not really the case. And you…..see, you're a problem."

"Because I'm the Fire Lord's daughter, I have to die?" Li spat. "Oh, that's not prejudice at all. No, just because my father happens to be the ruler of the Fire Nation…just because I'm his heir…" Tears began to well up in her eyes. "What's it matter, really? Fine, go ahead: kill me." She hurled her shukusen to the floor. "I'm sick and tired of this. All of this. Who's going to miss me?" A bitter laugh escaped Li's throat as she glanced at Ru. "Nobody, that's who…..they'll all move on. They've all got someone else. Even if I don't have anybody."

"If you'd just accepted your fate beforehand, this would have been so much easier." Meiko winked, and traced a hand along Hong's bicep. The Earthbender, not understanding what was going on, grinned like an idiot, enjoying the touch.

"Wait." Li closed her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. She opened them again, and gave Meiko her best glare. "Heal Ru first."

"None of the others? Just Ru?" Meiko gave a deep, throaty laugh. "Ahhh…rich, rich, Princess! You don't care about the others, who've fought for your life? Just her? The one who's already betrayed you once?"

"Ru has never betrayed me." Li hissed through clenched teeth. "She has never abandoned me. If anything, I'm the one who's done that. So make sure she lives, for me. I don't want her to die before me…and I won't let her." Eyes dull, Li whispered. "She should live a happy life without me…and with Si."

Meiko threw her head back, and let out a harsh laugh. "How _noble!_ How _honorable!_ How utterly, completely _foolish!_" Her blue eyes crinkled with sadistic mirth, and Meiko hardened the water she was twining around her fingers into ice-talons. "Very well! And you know what….? The water I use to heal her….." The Waterbender dashed forward suddenly, her un-taloned hand grasping Li by the hair. With a sadistic grin on her face, the woman dragged Li over to Ru, and put her ice-talons to Li's throat.

"Bitch….!" Li gasped, realizing Meiko's intent, and knowing how it would shatter Ru when the girl awoke.

"Yup….I'm going to heal her with the blood she's dedicated her very life to keep safe…_your blood!_" Li felt a sharp pain in her throat, and suddenly thick, red blood began to spurt from her throat. She collapsed, Meiko's hand releasing her, and found herself on her knees. With a few simple gestures, Meiko began to gather Li's blood into a ball, hanging just before her. Her blood…her life…pouring out of Li in a red river, resting just in front of her. There was so much. How was there so much blood in her? Funny…she had never thought there could be so much blood…so much…

Li's vision began to blur. She found herself staring at Ru, wondering how much blood her friend had lost. But that was okay, because Meiko was gonna heal her…replace all of Ru's lost blood with Li's…so much blood…

Darkness swallowed Li. She collapsed all the way to the ground. The last thing she saw was Ru, and the flow of rich red blood that streamed from her body, stealing her life, her strength…

_It was dark. Li could feel her body, a heavy weight, one she was eager to shed. Constrictive, binding, she struggled against its confines, desperate to be free of its chains. But something was keeping her locked inside of it, some deep will down inside her that refused to let go of life just yet._

"Li—!"

_Someone was calling her name? Oh…it was Ru. Of course. She was okay. That was good._

"Don't you dare die on me, Princess, don't you dare—!"

_Silly Ru…did you actually think you could get away with dying before me? Like I'm gonna let that happen. _

"Li…open your eyes…"

_What? Oh, fine. For you. One last time._

Li managed to pull together the will to open her eyes one last time. She could feel her body, mostly dead, no blood left in it. Ru's finger was jabbing at her wrist, searching desperately for a pulse that required more blood than Li had left. The older girl was….crying? At least she was alive….at least Li had kept the promise she'd always made, the one Ru had always scoffed at…

Perhaps she had enough energy to speak one last time, as well. Ru's golden eyes widened in hope as Li's dark brown eyes fluttered open. "I told you…you wouldn't…go first…" Li breathed, knowing Ru would hear the faint words. Then she couldn't keep her strength together any longer, and let her eyelids close, her body totally relaxing as the last of the air in her lungs escaped through her mouth and the hole in her throat.

The last thing Li heard in life was Ru's desperate scream of denial. "NOOOOOOOOO!"

_Where am I…?_

_Why is it so dark…?_

_I'm sorry…_

_Help me…_

_Where has the light gone?_

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**_A/N: Hey! This is my second story, but it's my first with chapters. I was pretty reluctant to post it at first, but a friend convinced me. Read and review please?_**


	2. Awakening

**Li: Hello everyone. Even though the author is making me go through all sorts of crap *glares at Karen* she's making me do a disclaimer (which she forgot last chapter). So, she doesn't own the Hetalia world or its characters at all (though OC countries may appear later), and she doesn't own the Avatar World, although she does own the characters from that world along with her Master.**

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The world summit was going fairly well, all considered. England and France, though not getting along as a rule, were at least not trying to throttle each other. America wasn't eating fast food loudly, and Canada was in the middle of a polite chat with Sealand (who wasn't entirely sure who he was talking to, but hey, someone was paying attention to him!), Italy was reading a manga rather than sleep or annoy Germany, and Romano wasn't insulting everyone in sight like usual. China felt relatively safe, as Russia wasn't present, and Belarus was off somewhere else, presumably looking for Russia, which made everyone else feel much safer. Prussia, though not invited, had showed up anyways (like he always did) and was being unusually quiet, talking with Germany in a low voice.

"West, the situation between America and China is none of our concern. Take it from the awesome me," Prussia pointed a finger at himself with a cocky smile to his younger brother, "we don't need to get involved."

"They nearly came to blows at the last meeting, Prussia." Germany hissed back. "If another world war starts out because of those two, we _will_ be affected. Someone needs to take care of the tension between those two, and fast."

"It's hardly our problem if they start launching bombs across the Pacific at each other." Prussia waved a hand lazily.

"And what if France joins one of them? Or England? Or Poland?" Germany's serious tone finally got the point through to his elder brother. "If our neighbors become involved, we will be affected. Besides, a nuclear attack always results in trouble for the entire world. Remember Hiroshima?"

Prussia was silent for a moment, thinking things over as best he could. His brother stared steadily at him, and the silence between the two stretched on for a long moment until Prussia finally spoke.

"The awesome me can handle anything." He shrugged, leaning back in his chair nonchalantly. Germany nearly strangled him then and there, but restrained himself and merely put his head in his hand. Prussia's arrogance was not without reason, but there were times when it hurt more than helped.

"Does anyone know where Russia is?" Spain looked around, breaking the quiet of the meeting. "We can't start without him. He's the host nation. The main topic of today's meeting is supposed to be about him and America's joint armaments program."

"He's not usually this late." America nodded, scarfing the last of his hamburger down. "Well, I can handle it all by myself anyways! After all, I'M THE HERO!"

"Hero of what? McDonald's?" England jeered. America just took out another burger and unwrapped it, biting into the cooked meat with a starving man's zeal.

"Now now, _mon ami_, leave him be." France put a hand on England's shoulder, only to have England turn on him and begin to yell. Sealand and Canada broke off their conversation to watch the show with interest.

"This…..isn't as bad as last time." Germany moaned, slumping in his seat. He folded his arms on the table and laid his head down, remembering how Italy had been the last host for a world summit. That had been much, much worse than the current situation. Had Japan forgiven him yet?...it was probably best not to think about that…

"Heeeey!" A familiar voice cried, the doors flying open as though kicked. Everyone started, and turned to stare at Russia, who was standing in the doorway. His usual smile, childish and falsely kind, was absent from his face, and he instead looked serious and intent. In his arms was a limp figure, clearly human and covered in blood.

The Baltic Trio appeared behind Russia, running into the room and promptly shoving everything off the nearest table ("Hey!" America protested as his supersized soft drink found its way to the floor). "Quick, put her here, put her here!" Lithuania babbled at Russia, grabbing a pitcher of water from another table and shoving a white handkerchief into the cool liquid. Russia hurried over to the table, and gently laid the unconscious person onto the bare surface, careful not to drop her head back.

"Wha…what is this?" England gasped, staring in shock at the limp person. It was a girl, wearing red and black clothing that looked like it had gone through a shredder. "Russia…? What did you do?"

"I found her outside, in the snow." Russia had adopted a childish look of worry now, and was watching Lithuania and Estonia attempt to clean some of the blood off of the girl. "She looked like she was sleeping at first, only then I saw the blood…"

"Ve~!" Italy cried, seeing the girl. "Will she be okay?" He turned to Germany and Prussia, eyes filled with worry. "Is she going to be okay, Germany?"

"I…I have no idea." Germany admitted, a sense of shock filling him. He glanced around, seeing similar expressions on the faces of the other nations. Lithuania and Estonia were working on the girl's blood-smeared face, barely making any progress.

"S-someone call an ambulance!" Latvia wailed, panicking. He had followed his fellow Baltic members on instinct, not knowing what else to do, accustomed to following orders. Sealand joined him in panicking, soon followed by Canada and Romano. Romano's panic started off Italy, then Finland, then France, then China and pretty much every other country that didn't have a constant air of calm.

"EVERYBODY CALM DOWN!" A loud scream rang through the room, and the panicking nations paused their hysterics to look over at Hungary. She was panting from the amount of breath she'd put into getting their attention, and glared at everyone. "Okay. Now. Don't panic. I'm sure this girl will be fine. If you were freaking out just a moment ago, please leave the room. If you weren't, stay in here, you might be helpful. Prussia, I don't care if you didn't panic, go and keep everyone else from interrupting and get a doctor here pronto. Got it, everyone?" There were small nods from several people, and Hungary nodded. "Right. GET OUT."

Most of the nations present made their way to the door, glancing at Lithuania and Estonia, who were still trying to wipe the blood off of the girl's face. Hungary grabbed Germany and Sweden's arms as they attempted to leave, and dragged them over to the table. "You two and Russia are the biggest of us all—and we don't know what happened. This girl might be dangerous. If she is, I want you here to defend the rest of us."

"Wh-what?" Russia looked close to panicking himself, childish face full of fear. "But…I-I don't have my pipe!"

"Use your fists." Hungary sighed, then turned to the girl. She took quick stock of the nations remaining in the room. England had stayed, as well as Austria, America and Japan. Russia and Sweden stood awkwardly near Germany, the three tall nations unsure of what to do. Estonia threw down a blood-soaked handkerchief in despair, the strain of trying to clean blood off of a young woman's face too much for him.

"She…there's so much…there's a lot of blood…" He whispered, hands trembling. The nation was usually so focused, so intellectual, so in control of himself…but this small encounter with brutality was shaking him to the core, taking him from his comfort zone into someplace new and strange.

"Let me." Hungary gently took the nation's hand, and guided him to a chair. "Rest here. You've done enough. It was very brave of you to try to help her, but now you need to let us help." She looked to Russia, gaze questioning. "Did you see anything around the area you found her in? Footprints, a trail of blood?"

"No, only her, lying in the snow." Russia shook his head. "The ground was turning red around her." A sinister purple aura gathered around him, but his expression did not change as he said, "I was going to try something, but Lithuania and Estonia insisted I bring her here."

_That may have been all that saved her life….._ Germany thought, suppressing a shudder as he glanced at Russia from the corner of his eye. Sweden was giving no indication as to his thoughts, but Germany suspected he was just as scared by Russia as he himself was. Hungary spared only a second to stare at Russia before turning to Lithuania and the girl.

"Here, stop using that for a moment." Hungary instructed, untying her apron. "You're just smearing it around. This should clean it better." Gently, trying not to disturb the girl, Hungary began to dab at the blood covering her face. It came off fairly well, though her hair was matted with the stuff, and it would take a good scrubbing to clean her off entirely.

Germany couldn't help but peer curiously at the face that emerged from the bloody mask. Pale skin, with a pallor to it that reminded him of dead soldiers on the battlefield; could she still be alive? He couldn't see any movement of her chest to indicate breathing. Mostly on impulse, Germany stepped forward and pressed a finger into the girl's neck, searching for a pulse. Hungary and Lithuania paused, looking at the reserved German in surprise.

There….a small, faint heartbeat, fluttering and weak, like a baby bird. To be totally sure, Germany leaned down and placed his ear over the girl's mouth, hoping to hear her breathe. A warm puff of air hit his ear, assuring the nation that this girl was, indeed, alive. But all this blood—where had it come from? Surely she must have lost a lot, to be covered to this extent.

"Did you see any evidence of a wound on her when you found her?" Germany directed the question to Russia, who shook his head. Frowning, he looked to Hungary. "Have you found any evidence of injury?"

"There's nothing I can see, so I'm just trying to clean her up first." Hungary shook her head. "I don't think her back is injured, or there would be blood seeping out from under her. Right?" Germany nodded his agreement with the female nation's words, and reached a hesitant hand to the girl's arm, intending to examine it for a wound.

"Wait!" America recovered his mind enough to call. "We should clean her off first. Here." He took his bomber jacket off, and handed it to Germany. "Start wiping off the rest of her. Hungary, can you help him? It'll be easier to see any injuries if she's cleaned up." The nation added, almost as an afterthought.

"He has a point." England grudgingly admitted. "Wait here—I brought a few things with me that might be useful." The older nation strode to his seat, where a large shoulder bag rested against his chair. He knelt and opened it, body hiding the contents as he rummaged through them until he finally pulled one thing out and closed the sack. Germany glanced up as England stepped up next to him and handed him a small First Aid kit.

"You carry that with you everywhere?" America asked England, sounding almost admiring. "Wow. Do you get hurt a lot?"

"Wha—stupid America!" England yelled, the old anger rising. "It's for helping you out when you get hurt, what else?" Sensing more yelling was about to take place, Japan stepped over and put a hand on England's arm.

"Please. There is an injured woman here. We should tend to her before fighting amongst ourselves." He said seriously. The two nations looked at Japan in shock for a moment, then turned their gazes to each other. An unspoken pact to save this for later was made between the two of them, and then they both turned to the girl.

"Here, I've cleaned her chest and stomach." Hungary handed her apron to America. "Can you get her boots off and clean her feet? I'm going to start checking for wounds."

"Sure thing." America and England replied at the same time, and each grasped one of the girl's odd, pointy-toed black-and-yellow boots. Trying not to be violent, they tugged the knee-high footwear off, then gaped at what was revealed.

Her pants, which had been tucked in, only went to mid-calf on the girl. The exposed skin was a patchwork of bruises in various states of healing, from fresh purple-black to old yellow-green. Thin lines of old scars wound around her ankles and the soles of her feet, and looked like they extended further up, evidence of some sort of old trauma or torture. Five burn scars marred her left ankle, inch-long slashes that looked like someone with a burning hand had grasped the girl's leg. It was a gruesome portrayal of violence, painted into her flesh.

"There's…there's no blood…" America found himself stammering. "These, these are old wounds, there's no blood…we-we'd better keep searching…"

"Uhh…y-yeah…" England agreed shakily, finding it impossible to tear his gaze away. Nations knew about pain, more than most humans would guess. They knew what it felt like to ache all over, to be bruised and bloody and beaten but still go on. And they knew what the injuries of such scars would have felt like when they were inflicted.

There was a minute or so's worth of silence as they worked, cleaning off the blood and trying to find any evidence of injury. Hungary broke the silence by looking up from the girl's arm to speak to Germany. "I think there's more blood caked on under her clothing, Germany. Could you take her coat off, please? It's so ripped up, it's hardly there anyways."

"Yes, of course." Germany obeyed automatically, used to receiving orders. He set down America's bomber jacket, now ruined, and took a moment to study the buttons on the girl's coat. Really, the thing was barely held together at the moment, it had been torn so badly. Had some sort of wild animal attacked her? The buttons seemed complex, a sort of loop of chain and fastening pin, but he managed to figure them out in a minute or so.

A groan sounded from the girl, and her eyes fluttered open. Everyone paused with what they were doing—Hungary wiping off blood from her arm, Lithuania was washing off a rag in a nearby water pitcher (good luck explaining that to the help), America and England looking at her boots, Japan, Austria, Sweden, and Russia simply staring at her, and Germany—

Germany was taking her clothes off.

Well, technically he was just taking off her shredded coat, which wasn't much in the way of covering at the moment. But, considering the fact that she was surrounded by men (Hungary's presence was a quick footnote at this point), feeling extremely weak, and in a lot of pain…..her next actions were completely excusable.

With a shrill shriek, she sat up (Germany's hand was holding the next button-chain-thing firmly, and went with her), grabbed Germany's wrist, and threw him at a wall. Then England, who was closer than America, had his shoulder seized. Before he knew what was going on, the girl was swinging him into America, actually lifting him off of the floor.

"Woah! Grab her!" America yelped, barely dodging England. The girl rolled off of the table as Russia and Sweden dived for her, then popped back up to block a punch America aimed at her. She used his momentum to toss him over her shoulder, then paused for a moment to take in her surroundings. Germany and England were sitting against two different walls, staring at her like she was a madwoman. America was lying on the floor, dizzy from being spun during the girl's block and toss. Sweden and Russia were getting up from the table, but seemed dizzy, having knocked their heads together by accident. Austria, Hungary, and Lithuania were staring at her in surprise, but not making any move to attack. Japan, however, had somehow produced a katana, and held the sheathed blade in his left hand.

That made him the most dangerous target, and thus the immediate threat to be dealt with. Russia lunged at the girl, who sidestepped him but grabbed the back of his jacket and spun him around. He sprawled on the floor, somehow rolling into Sweden's legs. The girl jumped onto the table, then launched herself at Japan, all in the space of a second.

"Stop!" Hungary cried just as Japan brought his sheathed katana up to block the girl's attack. "Hold up! We were just trying to help you! Calm down!"

"Huh…?" The girl blinked, and looked over at Hungary. She stepped away from Japan, and looked around the conference room, which was now a mess. "Wha…where am I?"

"The World Summit Meeting in Moscow, Russia." Hungary replied gently, walking over to the girl and putting a hand on her arm. "I'm Hungary. Please, you were found outside in the snow, covered in blood. We were just trying to help clean you up and see where the blood had come from when you woke up. If we startled you, I'm very sorry."

"Ummm…where's Russia?" The girl asked blankly. "And if there's some sort of worldwide-meeting, how'd I get here?"

"Eh?...You don't know where Russia is?" Austria stepped over. "It's a northern country, very cold. That's him, on the ground." He pointed to the nation, who was trapped under an unconscious Sweden (it looked like he'd hit his head on the table when Russia rolled into him and made him fall over…pretty good shot…). "Who are you?"

"Northern country?" The girl frowned. "I…I was at the North Pole, but…what? I'm pretty sure there are no 'Russia's up there…are we using the same map? Oh, and, I'm Li. Li Wu. Of the Fire Nation." She put a hand to her head, and winced as it began to pound, making her vision swim. "Nn…this is…so…not my…day…" Her eyes rolled up in her head, and she collapsed, Hungary catching her before she hit the floor.

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**A/N: Well, there you go! Chapter Two! I hope I'm not making the Hetalia characters seem unlike themselves...well, I'm sure I'm not! By the way, I would like to dedicate this entire story to the Hetalia Master, without whom I would not be able to write the characters AT ALL, and to my dear friends Master and The Blond (you know who you are ^_^)**


	3. Dreaming

**A/N**

**Li: I can't believe she's making me do this again. I can't believe it. **

**Me: Hey. Don't underestimate my laziness.**

**Li: I will keep that in mind, Karen. Now, she does not own Hetalia, nor does she own the Avatar world. She owns her OCs from the Avatar world jointly with her Master. Who does not want to be called her "Master," but she won't let me use her real name (reasons obvious) and she enjoys the evil glares her Master sends her when she is called "Master." Also, she is an evil person and I'm locked in her basement. Help!**

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Li woke up slowly, registering facts around her at a sluggish pace. The first thing she realized was that she was in a bed, with warm blankets and soft pillows. Very little light was hitting her eyes, and it eventually occurred to Li that it was either night, or she was in a dark room. Someone seemed to be sitting next to the bed, reading a scroll: every so often, paper rustled. Her head still hurt, though not as much as before. After a little while longer, Li decided to try opening her eyes.

A window was the first thing she saw, with a crescent moon shining through. The significance of the moon didn't hit Li for a few minutes, until she realized that the last time she had seen the moon, it had been full. Not to mention that this moon seemed smaller than the one Li was used to seeing. And…..a vague recollection of her earlier awakening nagged at Li. Hadn't one of those odd people said she was in someplace called…. "Russia"? But he'd pointed to one of men on the floor, too, when he said that…..

"Where…..?" Li mumbled, turning her head slightly to look for the person sitting with her. A woman, one she'd seen earlier when she'd woken up, was sitting in a rich-looking wooden chair next to her bed, an odd sort of scroll in her hands. Pieces of paper had been bound together, and squashed between two pieces of a harder material. Similar scrolls existed in the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom these days, a recent invention….but this scroll, in the woman's hands, looked old. Extremely old.

The woman put her scroll-thing down, and looked over at Li. "You're awake, wonderful." She smiled happily. "I was starting to worry. You said your name was Li, right? Please take it easy. You've been unconscious for a day now, and last time I checked, you still had a fever."

"No….I gotta….Ru….." Li didn't know if she was talking or thinking, but she managed to push herself into a sitting position on the bed. "My friends…..they were all in really bad shape, I need to find them…..what happened to the moon? It was full…" Her head was aching, and Li couldn't keep her thoughts in order. What was going on? Where was Ru? If Li was still alive, Ru should be here—Ru was always there for her! "Ru….."

"Relax!" Li's watcher pushed her back down, a worried look on her face. "There. Rest. My name is Hungary. I want you to take it easy. You're still sick. Don't try to get up again, forcing the issue will just make you worse off."

Reluctantly, Li settled back into the bed. Her brain was still fuzzy, unable to focus. "Did you give me some kind of painkiller?" She muttered, laying her cheek on the pillow. "I can't think straight….."

"No, but like I said, you have a fever." Hungary stroked Li's hair motherly. "What you need right now is rest, and sleep. You woke up earlier—remember?—and attacked some of the men helping me. I suppose I can't blame you, Germany _was_ taking your coat off."

"Who….?" Li whispered weakly, exhaustion washing over her again. Germany….the man who'd been undoing the buttons on her coat? What had she….she'd thrown him into a wall, hadn't she? Oh dear. She'd have to remember to apologize when she was better…

Li's eyes closed, and she allowed herself to drift into dreams.

_"Li?" A familiar voice called. Li blinked, and looked around in confusion. She was in the middle of a field of sunflowers, with a full moon high in the sky. Looking down, she saw she was wearing armor, the red and black dress uniform of the Fire Nation Army. A short cutlass hung from the belt, and she could feel her _shukusen_ in their holders, inside her sleeves._

_"Hello?" Li shouted back, taking a step forward. Her boot crunched on something, hidden below the sunflowers. Startled, Li tried to move the flowers apart so she could see what she had stepped on, but it was like they were made of metal. Frustrated, she pulled out her cutlass and attempted to cut away the top of one of the flowers. The steel cutlass hit the flower with a clang, and the blade crumpled._

_"You won't get anywhere like that, Li." The voice came again, its direction impossible to place. Li dropped the sword, and took out her antique _shukusen_. These flowers were scaring her by now, and she wanted to know what she'd stepped on. She had to know, for some reason._

_The fan-blades blurred as Li slashed at a stem. Nothing happened for a fraction of a second, and Li thought she had cut the flower—until she realized her_ shukusen_ was no longer in her hand. Startled, she looked about frantically, and spotted the beautifully-designed work of art on the ground, barely visible through the concealing flowers._

_"What ARE these flowers?" Li cried, recoiling. It was then that she found her feet were fastened to the ground, preventing her from moving. "What?_ _What is this? Help! Ru….!" But nobody answered, and Li reminded herself that she needed to be able to protect herself. Taking a deep, calming breath, she clapped her hands together in front of her and focused her chi. Then, with a sudden, violent movement, she sliced at the air with each hand, sweeps of fire radiating out from her hands._

_For a moment, she thought it had worked, and that the sunflowers had caught fire. But then the last of her flames dissipated, and she saw that the sunflowers were completely undamaged. "Li…" Came the eerie whisper, borne on the wind. "That's not how you'll leave here, Li…." Underneath Li, the ground lurched, and a sucking sound came from the dirt, which was quickly becoming mud._

_"Huh….?" Li gasped, before she realized the sunflowers were growing taller—no, she was sinking! Her boots were being swallowed up by the wet ground, and the level of the sunflowers quickly went from her elbows to her shoulders—her chin—_

_Then Li was under the level of the sunflowers, seeing what was underneath. It was darker than it was above, where the full moon lit the field. Tiny creatures were skittering about, Li could hear them now, squeaking and chattering at each other. Her mind filled with images of small, sharp-toothed things that would fly at her face, chew off her nose and ears, and Li barely suppressed a scream. Ru….where was Ru? Why wasn't Ru here to save her?_

_"Liiiii…" The voice sang, almost directly in her ear. Fighting back tears, Li turned to look at whatever was there._

_"…..Kuzon?"_

There were people standing about her, speaking. Li couldn't hear them, couldn't understand their voices. Her head didn't hurt as much, at least, and she thought she vaguely recognized someone's voice. It was that woman….Hungary…..and she was talking with several other people. It sounded like they were men…..and they sounded sort of familiar too…..

"….all right?" A young man's voice asked worriedly. "There was so much blood…."

"Her fever is going down, and she isn't as pale as she was." Hungary replied to the boy, a smile evident in her voice. "I think she'll be fine. She might wake up soon, if she continues to heal at this rate. You're welcome to wait here, Italy."

"Thanks, Hungary!" The boy cried joyfully. Li heard a scraping noise, probably a chair being pulled up to her bedside, and felt someone take her hand. "Don't worry, Miss Li. Such a pretty girl like you can't possibly be stuck here for long."

"She can't hear you, Italy." A deeper, older-sounding voice sighed. Li was tempted to crack an eyelid, but if they thought she was still asleep, maybe they'd let her sleep longer… "Hungary, are you sure we can be here….? She threw me into a wall last time she was awake."

"Only because you were taking her clothing off, Germany." Hungary answered cheerily. Aha! So _this_ was the man Li had tossed into a wall! Well, she did feel a little sorry about it….even if he had been undressing her. Just her outer layer, admittedly, but still! It was her freakin' clothing! She had had every right to retaliate!

"Where did Lithuania and Austria go?" Germany asked. "Weren't they helping you watch her?" Li heard another chair pull up, and wondered if Germany or Hungary had sat down. It was probably Germany—Hungary must have been in the room longer than Italy or Germany, so she must have had plenty of time to sit down before now.

"I sent Lithuania out to rest. Poor thing, he's still so traumatized by all that blood." Hungary sounded worried, and Li found herself wondering who Lithuania was. Had he been one of those men present the first time she woke up? "And Austria went with him, to get him something to eat. Poor Lithuania hasn't eaten since Russia carried her in."

"Well, so long as she hasn't attacked anybody else." Germany said tiredly. "She woke up last night, right? Was she violent then? Delusional?"

"No, not quite." Hungary shook her head. "But she was very worried about her friends. I had Estonia and Latvia go back to where they found her, but they say there's nothing else there. Not even footprints, which is odd, because there hasn't been any snow in that region for a week now."

"If there are no footprints, how did she get there?" Germany sounded tense. Li couldn't help but agree with his question, though—if there had been no footprints, how had she wound up in the snow in some odd place? Whatever was going on here, there had to be supernatural forces at work. Perhaps the spirits were involved…? She knew Ru's father was a spirit, albeit nobody was really sure which one he was. Had he done something?

"I'm a bit more worried about how she didn't know about Russia." Hungary admitted. "She said she had been at the North Pole, but it's a ways to get there, even from Moscow. And she said she was from a place called the 'Fire Nation,' but I've never heard of such a country. You were there, remember? Have you heard of anyone named 'Fire Nation' among our kind?"

"Hmmm…yes, I do remember." Germany sounded thoughtful, and Li imagined he must be looking intently at her right now. "But I've never before heard of a 'Fire Nation.' Perhaps one of the older nations will know. But I'm more worried about what was she doing at the North Pole…"

"Prol'ly something stupid…." Li muttered before she could help herself. There were intakes of breath from three different throats, and she cursed herself internally for slipping up and letting them know she was awake. That sort of mistake could get her killed, especially if she was in the hands of enemies here! She had to tread carefully until she knew where she stood! Resigning herself to the fact that she had blown it anyways, Li grudgingly opened her eyes.

Two men were seated at her bedside, one of whom was holding her hand lightly. Hungary was standing between them, a supporting hand on the back of each chair, looking at Li in surprise. Of the two men, the one holding her hand—the one Li assumed to be Italy—seemed the younger, with red-brown hair that Li had never seen on a human being before. Hungary's hair, a pale brown, was much more natural-seeming to Li. Seeing her open her eyes, Italy released her hand, somewhat awkwardly.

But the greatest shock of all was the hair of the second man, the one Li assumed to be Germany. When she had first awoken, she had been too startled by what he was doing to notice his hair, or the hair of anyone else. The next time she woke up, only Hungary had been present. Now, since Li was much more rested, feeling much better, and didn't have anyone trying to take her clothes off, she finally noticed Germany's hair.

It was a shining, sunny shade of yellow.

Now, Li had never seen yellow hair before. She had seen black hair, naturally, and brown hair. Some of her friends had extremely light brown hair, hair that shone like bronze in the sunlight. But never before had she seen yellow hair.

Her first instinct was to touch it. But that was somewhat weird, especially considering they had just met. What was more, though, as Li thought back to the first time she'd awoken, some of those people had had yellow hair as well! There was even one with hair a light beige color…at least, Li thought so. She had been very, very confused at that point in time, and not paying attention to details.

It occurred to Li that she was staring. Tearing her widened eyes from the man's yellow hair, she looked to Hungary with questioning eyes. Words formed at the back of her throat, only to die when she thought of better ones, who quickly followed their predecessors' fate. Everything that was happening began to catch up with Li, from her last awakening to her dream to those moments at the North Pole, with Ru holding her and screaming for Li to survive while Li's bloodless body shut down.

"Are…are you all right?" Italy's question interrupted the flow of thoughts to Li's brain, and she took a moment to take quick stock of her body. There was no pain anywhere, nothing twingeing or throbbing or anything like that. She couldn't feel any stiffness in her limbs, although she suspected that once she tried to move around she would find she was a bit weaker than usual. It all totaled one overall condition that Li could sum up easily.

"I…I'm fine." Li shook her head slightly, trying to focus on one thing, but finding that beyond her overactive mind's capabilities right now. Everything was trying to overwhelm her, waking up here, the odd hair colors, and…what had happened…with Meiko…Ru…Just for something, anything, to do, Li pushed herself up into a sitting position.

There was silence for a long moment as everyone simply stared at each other. Germany, Hungary, and Italy all focused their attention on Li—the girl found herself staring at all three of them, wondering what was going on here, and how to determine where she was. This was not the North Pole—the construction of this place was clear evidence of that. At the North Pole, everything was ice and snow, covered with fabrics on the inside to protect the ice from the flames that warmed the structures. Here, there was wood, and plaster, and glass. The North Pole did not have glass.

And…their clothing. It was…weird. The fabrics were different from what Li was used to seeing, as was the weaving patterns. Not to mention the cut of the clothing itself—simple pants, shirts, and vests, without much adornment or bright color. Color…there seemed to be no precedent besides personal taste for color. Hungary was in a green dress, with white accents, Italy wore odd, rough-looking pants in a shade of bright blue with a cream shirt, Germany wore dark blue pants, a white shirt, and a dark blue jacket…all dull colors, compared to the bright hues Li was used to. In fact, she'd never before seen such colors. Did they have different kinds of dyes here?

It was Li who gave in and spoke. "So…where am I?" She asked cautiously. "Some sort of…hospital?" They'd mentioned blood—lots of blood. And Li's throat had been…Meiko had…wait, Meiko had…! Li grabbed her throat in sudden terror, fearing to find stitches or something holding the huge gash she knew, she _knew_, had to have resulted from what Meiko had done.

But…there was nothing. Smooth flesh, with no bulging scar tissue or telltale bandaging. That was impossible. Li had felt Meiko's ice-talons cut into her throat, she had _felt_ it, had felt the blood flowing out of her in a crimson river, felt the life draining out of her…

"A-are you alright?" Hungary and Italy leaned forward at the same time, concern in their eyes. Hungary reached a hand forwards to touch Li's hand, over her throat. "Is something wrong with your voice? It sounds perfectly fine to me, but…"

"Huh? N-no, I just…" Li wasn't sure how to explain what had happened. She didn't think she wanted to. It was…something personal, something she didn't want to share. "I just…I'm thirsty." Okay, that was a pretty lame excuse…true, actually, but lame. Well, lying wasn't one of Li's strong points.

"Oh, of course. Silly me." Hungary withdrew her hand, and stepped to a small table against the wall. A pitcher of water and a glass cup sat on a metal tray—was that silver? No, it couldn't be…was it? Sure looked like silver to Li. The woman poured some water into the glass, then brought it over and handed it to Li wordlessly. Li accepted it with a nod, and took a polite sip of the liquid. It washed down her parched throat, moisturizing the dry skin with a delicious feeling.

Li continued to sip from the glass until it was empty. She realized at some point that she was stalling for time before speaking again, but didn't quite care. Once she finished, doubtless she'd have to explain who she was, tell what she knew of how she had come to this place, this "Moscow, Russia," and find out where that was on the map. That last one was her first priority, though.

Something occurred to Li as she sipped at the last of the water. Hungary had said, "Have you heard of anyone named 'Fire Nation' among our kind?" to Germany. "Our kind." Her kind. Their kind. Spoken referring to a place like a person. Li's stomach started to feel sour.

"What exactly are you?" She phrased the question as politely as she could after finishing her water, but felt pretty sure she was still being rude in some way. Diplomacy wasn't her thing. Kai, her cousin, was the diplomat. Jia, the Water Tribe Princess, she was a diplomat, the best. But Li, Li was not a diplomat.

"Huh? Us?" Hungary blinked, then looked at Italy and Germany. The two men looked back at her, surprise filling the three's faces. They turned to Li again, and Hungary made a generally encompassing motion around both men. "Do you mean…us here? Don't you know?"

"I don't think I'd be asking if I knew." Li winced slightly at the words. "Uhh…I'm sorry for my rudeness. I'm not a morning person…or afternoon, or evening, or whatever time it is now."

"Oh, that's all right." Hungary dismissed Li's apology. "Umm…well, if you really don't know…I don't know how to explain it…Germany?" She gave the man a hopeful look. He looked uncomfortable for a moment, as if unsure how to start, until he sighed and looked at Li.

"We're nations—us three, and others." He paused, as if searching for words. "We…we're the embodiment of our country. Its nationality, its people, its tastes and culture and beliefs. There are many more of us—one for each country in the world. Each of us is different. If two nations are thought to be related, or have similar cultures, or their people share common ancestry, then their embodiments are also related…It's very complicated." Germany finished, a bit of a flush appearing to tinge his cheeks red.

"How many of you are there?" Li felt the sourness in her stomach grow icy. There were only four nations in the world. Five, if the Water Tribes were counted as separate. But these three, if they really were telling the truth about embodying nations, were people—were _countries_—Li had never heard of before. Maybe they weren't telling the truth…maybe they were lying…

"There are over a hundred of us, I hear." Italy answered the question for Germany. "I haven't met all of them, of course. But I've met everyone from Europe, and a bunch of the one from Asia and America." Europe. Asia. America. What in the world were those places?

"Umm…I see…" Li tried to gather her thoughts. Outwardly, she tried not to show anything, not the slightest sliver of emotion. But inside…..inside she was scared to death. Italy was naming places like they were everyday things, when she, Li, had never heard of them. Her confusion over that was just one of several factors contributing to make the girl want to scream. Over a hundred. Probably more, Li would bet, just based on luck alone. And she was feeling a growing certainty that the Fire Nation wasn't among those hundred-plus nations.

It was too much. Li let herself slip down, the glass still held limply in her hands. She needed to rest. Seeing this, Italy and Germany stood up to leave, but she felt a sudden flurry of panic at the thought of them leaving. "Umm…could you…" She felt a blush creep onto her cheeks. "Could you…stay? I just need to rest a little longer…I still have to ask…" Her eyes slowly closed, and her voice trailed off. Germany nodded quietly and resumed his seat. Italy looked on for a second before following suit. Hungary retrieved a chair, and pulled it up on the opposite side of the bed. Together, the three waited for Li to wake up again.

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**Me: Wow! The third chapter! And…I've only gotten three reviews! T.T Good thing I've come up with a plot to get more reviews! :3 Now, I was thinking about how nice the three reviews I've gotten are, and how nice more would be, so I'm gonna give you guys incentive to review! Until the next chapter gets posted, I would like you guys to review and tell me something you would like to see in my story. It can be a funny scene, or an object you want to make an appearance, or a plot twist, or a phrase or something you want somebody to say…anything! Once the next chapter's up, I will choose the best suggestions and incorporate them into my story. As a note, though, they have to be rated T at most. Please try to keep them in character, as well.**

**Li: And please don't put me into any more awkward situations! Like the one in Chapter—**

**Me: LI! DON'T RUIN IT FOR THE NICE READERS!**

**Li: I hate you.**

**Me: I know. It's all that keeps me going, some days.**

**Read & Review! Please! I will love you forever if you do!**


	4. Accident

**A/N**

**Me: Yeah! Chapter Four! Woot! Li, get over here! Disclaimer time!**

**Li: *stumbles over, groaning and rubbing eyes* Karen does not own Hetalia or the Avatar universe. She owns her original characters along with a friend. *falls over, starts to snore***

**Me: Also, thanks for the lovely suggestions, guys! I will be keeping the reviews open to suggestions, since I got some good ones last time! Please read, review, and SUGGEST! :D**

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Li's eyes opened mostly of her own accord. After some sleep, which had allowed her tired mind to sort things out, she finally felt capable of dealing with the matters at hand. Foremost of which, she decided, was where she was.

And it was not anywhere in the Four Nations. Over the past few months, Li had traveled the nations extensively, avoiding detection for the better part of that time. She had never found a place called "Russia," or "Germany," or "Italy" or "Hungary" or anything like that. Which led to one conclusion.

Li was no longer in her own world. Whatever had happened after her death, at Meiko's hands, she had wound up being transported from her own world to a different world. And nothing here matched the descriptions Li had heard of the spirit world. Of course, the spirit world was a big place—she supposed it was altogether possible that she was just in one of the safer areas. But somehow that didn't seem like the case…yet how could she be sure?

Wait. In the spirit world, you can't Bend. Li knew that much for sure, having heard Ru and Huo both complain of it on different occasions. Huo was the one with the most experience in the spirit world, being the Avatar, but Ru had certain…connections to the spirit world that allowed her to travel freely between the real world and the spirit world. The best test as to whether this was or wasn't the spirit world would be to Bend—but, Li remembered with a sinking feeling, she had asked Hungary, Italy, and Germany to stay with her until she woke up again.

Well, if she was awake, she might as well let them know. Li cracked an eye open, just enough to peer around and see if anyone was present, and nearly had a heart attack. A man with roughly shoulder-length yellow was staring at her from inches away, an intent look on his face. His chin was covered in stubble, like he was letting it grow out for a few days, or just neglecting to shave.

"Yaaaaagh!" She screamed, one hand instinctively going for the man's neck. Her other hand began to search for a weapon, any weapon, that could be used to defend herself. The man, startled by her sudden waking, jerked back just in time to avoid Li's attempt to smash his windpipe. Finding no weapons with her other hand, Li pushed off of the bed and rammed her knee into the man's gut. He gave a rather satisfying grunt of pain and fell to the floor, clutching at his abdomen.

"Hey! Calm down!" Someone yelled. Li was on one knee on the bed, waiting for the man to get up and attack, fixated on the threat. A hand grabbed her shoulder, and without thinking, Li seized the wrist and flipped whoever it was over her shoulder and down onto the first man, driving the wind out of both of them. This new person was a younger man, with yellow hair and incredibly thick eyebrows.

"Uh…L-Li!" Hungary's voice cried. "Stop!" Li froze for a moment, still watching the men on the floor—just in case. "They're not trying to hurt you or anything…France was just looking at you and England was just trying to get you to calm down."

"Eh…?" Li knew how stupid she sounded, but couldn't really bring herself to care at that moment. She felt her cheeks bloom red, and forced herself to relax. "Umm…sorry?" Hungary came into view, and knelt by the two men, who were presumably France and England.

"That…hurt…" The first man, the one with longer hair, moaned. He squirmed a bit under his fellow, who trying to sit up drearily. The second man put his right hand on the first man's stomach, and pushed himself up, causing the first man to exhale/grunt in pain. "Eargh…!"

"Hungary! I told you, she's dangerous!" A new voice cried from behind Li. Trying to appear nonthreatening, Li eased herself back to a sitting position in the middle of the bed and turned to see who it was. There was a young man—she actually hadn't seen anyone that looked like they were over twenty-five here—was standing next to her bed, a seated Italy and Germany to his right. His finger was pointed at Li accusingly. "She shouldn't be here!" Hungary was to his left, one hand on his arm, a pleading look on her face. She seemed to be trying to calm him down. Li noticed he had glasses—glasses! Only nobility had glasses in her world. Clearly, this was an important man. And so young…

"Um, where is here, again?" Li tried to ask, but a cry of outrage from behind made her turn back to the men she'd thrown to the ground.

"_Ma parole! La femme est falle! Lock-la! Regardez ce qu'elle a fait à mon beau visage_!" The first man, free now from his companion, jumped up and pointed at Li, then to his face. A small scratch, probably from his companion and not Li, marred the side of his nose. It was barely noticeable, unless one knew what to look for.

"Stop being such a crybaby, France." The second man got up now, rolling his eyes. "It's a scratch. Get over it."

"_Non! Non! Jamais! Pour la guillotine avec elle! La guillotine_!" The first man, France, screamed. "_Elle m'avait fait hideux! Angleterre, voux ne comprenez pas_!"

"_Mein Gott…_" Li heard Germany mutter. She was, by now, thoroughly confused. What language were they speaking?

"Okay, everybody, _calm down!_" Hungary cried, waving her arms in distress. "France, no, let's not send her to the guillotine. England, can you…? Thank you. Austria, she's just startled. It's not her fault she attacked France, when he was leaning so close to her." She relaxed a bit when England put France into a headlock, and turned to Li. "It was an accident, right?"

"Umm…mostly." Li looked away from Hungary's earnest look. "I…well, if I'd been more awake, I probably could have kept myself from hurting anyone. But I'm really paranoid right after waking up, and he really startled me, so I…uh…I kinda reacted without thinking."

"See? She's dangerous!" Austria insisted. "I'm going to speak to Russia about this. She shouldn't have stayed here. She should have gone to a hospital, where she could be restrained."

"She wasn't violent the second or third times she woke up!" Hungary protested. "Just the first time, when Germany was taking her clothing off, and just now, when France was so close!" At the reminder that Germany had been taking her clothing off when she'd first woken up, Li couldn't help but sneak a glance at him, face burning red. It was something of a surprise to see him returning the look, face just as red as hers, if not redder.

"Umm, I don't think she's going to attack anyone, ve~" Italy spoke up. "She seems too nice." Li gave him an approving look, and nodded her agreement. Austria was turning red with anger, or something like it. Him and Hungary began to argue, with Italy occasionally chiming and Germany just watching. France and England were in their own little argument, with France shouting in a strange language that Li didn't understand at all. It seemed he'd managed to get out of the headlock.

But Li, at this point, was thinking hard. She was fairly convinced that she was not in the spirit world. Spirits wouldn't act in so undignified a manner as this!...Of course, she had absolutely zero experience with spirits, and wasn't sure how they were supposed to act. But they probably didn't act like these…people. Nations. Whatever Hungary had said they were.

There was a candle on a table beside the canopied bed Li was sitting on. It was out, but Li could vaguely feel a few embers still smoldering in the wick, similar to the way most people would feel a shift in air pressure, or see vague shapes in shadows. One of the most basic techniques of Firebending was manipulating pre-existing flames, making them grow or shrink, depending on the Bender's preference. The technique was called "fire augmentation." Li shot a look at the arguing nations, and was relieved to see none of them were paying any attention to her—at least, not overtly. Germany, feeling her gaze, glanced quickly at Li, but she blushed when she remembered the first time she'd awoken and quickly looked away. Closing her eyes, clearing her mind, and focusing on the embers, Li tried to coax a small flame into being. She took deep, even breaths, and applied a small amount of her will and her _chi_.

Fire flared up three feet in the air, catching the curtains hanging on Li's bed and setting them on fire. Everyone froze for a moment, and Li stared with wide eyes, an "oh-shit-what've-I-done-now" look on her face. Then Germany, England, and France all started to panic simultaneously, while Austria let out a gasp. Li made a strangled noise at the back of her throat, and instinctively pushed herself away, to the foot of the bed.

"Germany! Germany! Ahh! The candle! It's ALIVE!" Italy screamed, grabbing onto Germany's arm and hindering the other man as he tried to make a grab for a nearby water pitcher. "Germany! Help meeee!" The younger man seemed to be trying to climb up onto his friend's shoulders, and if there hadn't been a fire, Li might have laughed.

"Oh…oh my…" Hungary backed up a step, bumping into France as the other nation screamed in terror. Germany managed to shake Italy off long enough to get hold of the water pitcher, and dashed the flames with the cool liquid. They died down to mostly nothing, but some of the water hit Li, knocking her from her shocked state—that, that was an accident, she hadn't meant that to happen—enough to think of focusing on the flames dying down.

Thankfully, it worked, and the flames (already mostly gone due to the water) died down to embers, which in turn vanished. Germany was panting heavily, still pumped with adrenaline from the sudden outbreak of fire, and Italy was just behind him, peering at the burnt curtains with terror and fascination written all over his face. England and France stopped screaming, and instead stared at the candle with wide, scared eyes.

Li was…confused. And just a little scared. Her Firebending shouldn't be this powerful. Even though she came from a line of the most powerful Firebenders in history, she hadn't exactly been the quickest study. Oh, she'd trained day in and day out for years, on both Ru and her parents' insistence. But where Ru had mastered the basics by age three, Li was five before she was moving on to the advanced sets. People said she was better than most other Firebender children, who took three to four more years besides to master the basics, but Li had trained almost constantly. Not to mention that, as the Fire Lord's daughter, she couldn't afford to be anything less than perfect.

But…back to the matter at hand. How had her Firebending gotten so out-of-control? Basic breathing exercises and simple fire-control techniques were the first thing a Firebender learned! Li knew, _knew_, that she'd only exerted enough force to smart a small fire. Was something here augmenting her powers? Maybe a comet was passing by…?

"That…what…" Austria spoke, breaking the silence in the room. "What was that?" He made a motion as if to step over and examine the candle, but stopped himself and instead turned to Germany. "Germany, what was that?"

"I…how should I know?" Germany shook his head irately, giving his fellow nation an annoyed look. "The candle set the bed on fire!"

"I think he means, how did the candle—which was unlit—suddenly burst into flames?" France spoke up, standing behind and just to the left of England. "_Angleterre_, what do you think?"

"What do I think?" England reached a hand towards the candle, then snatched it back. "I…I think…I think…" He trailed, off, then resolutely looked at France. "I think I need some ale."

"Why, _Angleterre_! Asking me out for a drink, hm? Pouvons-nous avoir du vin? Un bon dîner? Je vais mettre des préservatifs." France's eyes lit up, and he attempted to sling an arm around England's shoulder casually. The other nation dodged the arm, and scowled at France.

"No, I am not asking you for a drink." He said sternly. "I am _telling_ you what I think, and now I am about to go get some alcohol. If they have good ale in Russia, anyways." Rubbing his temple, England headed for the door, closely followed by a yammering France.

Li watched them go, then turned her attention to the four remaining people in the room. Italy and Hungary looked scared still, Germany had calmed some but still seemed hyper-aware, and Austria looked like he was quietly building up steam. She wasn't sure if she should say anything, and worried that whatever she said would set Austria or Germany off. If that was the case…well, she didn't want to anger anyone. For all purposes, she was at their mercy: in their world, which she knew nothing of, there was little hope of surviving without them or their help.

She had to make friends with these people. Find out how to survive in this world. If they wouldn't help her, she was screwed. It was only temporary, of course, and would only take until Ru found her. But Li had no idea how long that would take, how long for Ru to locate a way to this world and successfully cross it. Something must have happened when Meiko had drained Li's blood, when Li had "died"—if she had even died at all then. Perhaps a spirit had intervened?

No, focus Li. Focus on the room. Who was her ally? Hungary had been very kind to Li so far, so it was likely that the woman would be a potential ally. Italy seemed personable, but his reaction to the fire had Li wondering what kind of ally he would make. Austria, she would bet, had taken a dislike to her already. Li would have to try and correct that somehow. He reminded her almost of Earth Princess Mao—an aristocrat to the bones, used to civility and being in charge.

And Germany…he seemed to be the best person in the room to cope with a crisis, since he'd managed to conquer his initial panic at the candle's sudden flare enough to put it out. But Li realized she couldn't look at him without feeling herself blush intensely, as memories of the first time she'd woken up surfaced. Okay, it was seeming likely that until she could get control of that reaction, she would be avoiding Germany.

It occurred to Li that she should try to keep suspicion from falling on her for the candle's unexpected lighting. Ru had always stressed secrecy, especially when in unknown territory. With no idea where she was, or what these people were like, Li could only follow Ru's example.

"So…that doesn't happen a lot here, then?" Li managed to say, voice shaky. She wasn't a very good liar, she knew—Ru had despaired over Li's non-existent lying abilities before. Everyone turned to look at her, and the look on Austria's face told Li he'd pretty much forgotten she was there. Italy looked puzzled, as did Hungary, and Germany just looked like he couldn't believe what she'd said.

"No. Not that often." Italy was the one to answer, surprisingly. Li had been getting the impression that he wasn't usually the first to talk. It seemed she was being too quick in forming her opinions, and she made a mental note to try and hold off on the judging. "Does it happen often where you come from?"

Ah—where she was from. Li was fairly sure they wouldn't believe her if she said she was from another world, and besides that, she couldn't remember if she'd told them before now. "Uhh…no, not really." She shook her head. "Spontaneous combustion…no. And the fact that that doesn't happen often here…yes, I feel much safer now, thank you." Er, the sarcasm would have to stop. Something told Li that Italy wasn't getting it. Austria didn't seem to appreciate the attitude either. Also, the blatant lie about spontaneous combustion made her feel uneasy. For the spirits' sakes, she was a Firebender! A _Firebender_! She _made_ things spontaneously combust!

"Um, so, are you feeling better?" Hungary asked kindly, trying to steer the conversation in a safer direction. "You seemed much better last time you woke up. It's been about four hours since then. Are you thirsty? Oh, but the water…well, I can always get more."

"No, I'm not thirsty, thank you." Li declined politely, relaxing into a loose cross-legged sitting position. She smoothed her hands along her outfit, then realized with sudden surprise that she was in a long, white gown. "Um…not to sound rude, but…who…who changed me?" Her cheeks reddened, and her eyes threatened to wander towards Germany again.

"Oh, that was me." Hungary assured the girl, smiling brightly. "Your clothing was more-or-less destroyed, so I thought you wouldn't mind. You don't mind, do you?" The older woman gave her an anxious look, and Li quickly shook her head.

"No, no…if my clothing was ruined anyways, it's better not to wear it." Li waved a hand to show her acceptance. "Though…I don't suppose you still have them? If you have some spare fabric, I can probably patch them up…but, wait, wasn't I…ah crap…" Li winced as she remembered when she'd woken up first. "They're…I was covered in blood…they wouldn't have survived that, no way…"

"Yes, I'm afraid I threw them out." Hungary apologized. "Austria almost made me keep them, but after I told him it was impossible for them to still be good, he accepted that they were unusable, and let me get rid of them. That's just how he is, not throwing anything away until it's rags."

"H-hey! Don't just tell that to some person you don't even know!" Austria yelped in protest, looking a bit flustered. Hungary looked a bit embarrassed, and Li found herself wondering if the two were a couple. They were certainly acting like a couple, or as far as Li knew about couples. She hadn't exactly had much experience with others her own age, much less couples, with the exception of her cousin Kai's shenanigans. Kai was very open about things…open, and enthusiastic, and just a bit pushy.

"Um, s-so, they were pretty much unsalvageable…" Li attempted to stop a lovers' quarrel from occurring in front of her, and unfolded her legs, then swung them over the side of the bed. "Is there anything else for me to wear? Not to sound ungrateful, but this nightgown isn't really my style."

"Oh, uh, yes." Austria regained his composure, and fixed his glasses. "Some of the other nations are also female, and we asked if they had anything in your size. Hungary and Belarus fit your body type most, so they'll be loaning you some clothing."

"Oh, I see. Thank you." Li nodded, and clapped her left fist under her right hand, a Fire Nation gesture of respect. Austria blinked at the motion, then nodded curtly. Italy began to say something, but the door creaked before he could form the first word, and Li felt a chilly aura seep into the room.

"Hello. I heard she's awake." A childish voice sounded. Li slowly turned to see who—or what—it was coming from, fearing some deformed spirit had appeared at the door. Instead, she saw a man with beige-colored hair peering into the room, with a small smile that appeared to be permanently pasted to his face, yet failed to reach his violet eyes. There was a pink scarf wrapped around his neck.

If Li remembered correctly, this was Russia.

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**DUN DUN DUN...RUSSIA!**


	5. Explosions

**Helloooo~ Guess whoooo? That's right-it's Karen! I'd like to mention that I've noticed something interesting with my reviews...**

**Chapter 1: 1 review**

**Chapter 2: 2 reviews**

**Chapter 3: 4 reviews**

**Chapter 4: 6 reviews**

**This entertains me, kinda a lot.**

**Li: You're easily entertained.**

**Me: I know, right? Now do the disclaimer, dance monkey.**

**Li: I'm not your dance monkey!**

**Me: Oh? But I, as your creator and author, can make you do whatever I want you to~.**

**Li: O.O You wouldn't...**

**Me: Disclaimer or dancing. Your choice, my dear.**

**Li:...Karen Elaine DuLay does not own Hetalia: Axis Powers or the Avatar world. She owns her characters, jointly with a friend. Which includes...me... *starts to cry***

**Me: Now! Enjoy the chapter! And let's get those reviews in, hmmmm? :D**

"Hello…" Li squeaked, voice trailing off. There seemed to be a purple aura in the room, emanating from Russia. That she could actually see the aura surprised Li, as she wasn't gifted that way. But perhaps it was because the aura was so strong…

"Oh, you are awake! Wonderful!" Russia entered the room, and the door closed behind him with an ominous thud. "I was starting to worry you wouldn't wake up. How are you feeling?"

"B…better…" Li stared at the nation in fear. Something about him made her feel like her life was in danger. He was tall, too, where Li was relatively short, and that smile of his seemed like a mask. Realizing she was being rude, Li blinked a few times to cut short her stare, and tried to remind herself that the first time she'd woken up, this man had gone flying to the ground. It didn't make her feel any better. Though, knowing she'd thrown him once meant she might be able to manage a second time…

Wait a minute. She was pretty sure she'd only thrown him the first time due to sheer adrenaline…

"That's wonderful!" Russia walked over to stand at the foot of the bed, boots clomping on the carpeted floor. "Everyone was so worried! We didn't know what to think!" He stopped a few feet away from Li, who was still sitting on the edge of the bed, and smiled at her. "I should tell Lithuania. He was the most worried. Such a silly thing, he is, I told him you would be all right."

"Oh. Um. Thank…you?" Li wasn't sure how to respond to this man, especially not with his aura swirling about his immediate vicinity. Desperate, she shot a look to Hungary for help, but the woman was just standing there smiling weakly at Russia. Austria seemed to be trying to avoid Russia's gaze, as was Germany. Italy, in contrast, seemed oblivious to his friends' moods and was playing with a brightly colored cube device. He was turning different sections, and seemed to be trying to group all the colors to certain sides.

There seemed to be no promise of rescue at this point, at least not a quick and easy one. Li started to examine the room for viable escape points, should the necessity come up. The door was shut, possibly locked, and Russia was standing directly between it and her. Perhaps a window, which would take a simple blow to break open, would be a good escape route? But they were glass, and Li hated the idea of breaking precious glass. At home, if she tried such a thing, she would be given the worst training drills imaginable for even a crack. She didn't know what the punishment would be here. If they even bothered with punishing her, and didn't simply decide she was too much trouble and kill her.

"So, um, Russia, why are you here?" Italy spoke up, his words almost making Li cringe. She didn't think she could be anything other than dead polite with this man, and the thought of asking him something as blatantly as Italy had just done made her head hurt. Russia slowly turned his gaze to Italy, menacing behind his childish smile.

"I just wanted to see if our guest was alright. After all, she's staying in my house." Russia's smile widened a bit, and Li felt a chill run down her spine. _His house._ She was in Russia's home. He was her host. Common Fire Nation courtesy dictated that she must respect his wishes—but honestly, the mere thought made Li want to run screaming.

"Um, so, can I get dressed?" Li asked hesitantly, and put a hand up to play with her loose hair. She found it was slightly sticky, and clumped together. "Urgh…and maybe wash my hair?"

"Hm?" Hungary started, then nodded. "Oh, yes…I'm sorry, I didn't want to try giving you a bath in the same building as France. He can be…" Hungary's mood darkened, and she growled her next words. "He can be…difficult." Then she brightened, and smiled awkwardly at Li. "But, there's a bathroom just down the hall. You can clean up there. Can you stand?"

"I think…" Li glanced at her feet, and pushed herself off of the bed. Her legs threatened to try something, but Li refused to acknowledge them and shakily stood. Italy, Germany, and Hungary all moved forward, as if to help her, but Li waved them off. It seemed her time abed had given her muscles the chance to relax more than they usually did, and they were taking to activity like a Badgermole to the sun. Ru would make Li train so hard to make up for this…

"You look much prettier standing up!" Italy commented, making Li blush. "And wow—that dress looks much prettier on you! I told Hungary you would fit my old clothes."

"What?" Li jumped, which was a bad idea—she nearly collapsed. "Umm umm wait you…this was yours? You…wore dresses? What?" A mental image of Italy in an Earth Kingdom formal dress presented itself to Li, and she found herself blushing as she realized he would pull it off quite well. Especially if he was with other women…Hungary joined the mental image of Li's, and she felt herself blushing at the thought. The picture in her head was a little embarrassing.

"Yeah, all the time. Hungary even loaned me her old clothes!" Italy seemed very cheerful, and beamed over at Hungary. Russia's presence put a damper on Hungary's smile, but Li got the feeling Hungary was remembering those times happily.

"Okay…umm…" Li wasn't sure how to take her leave of the room without seeming rude. "Um, Hungary, can you show me to the bathroom?" Unsure if she was being rude or no, Li resisted the urge to play with her hair, which seemed dirty from some sort of liquid, and instead put her hands behind her back. Wondering if she'd left any marks on the bed, Li glanced to where she'd been sleeping.

Red stains marred the pillow and blankets. Li's eyes widened in shock, but she swallowed her surprise and acted calm. Okay, a red liquid was in her hair. Yeah, red liquid. Well, that didn't bring anything to mind at all…no, not at…

Was there blood on her face, too? Her hands? Li couldn't remember seeing any before—maybe someone had washed it off of her arms, at least? Hopefully that had been Hungary. And…how did all that blood get on her in the first place? Was it from…her?

Well, Li didn't feel like she was lacking blood, a rather pleasant feeling considering what had happened. And she didn't know how she could have been covered in blood, much less how she arrived in this world. So, since there was nothing she could do…she might as well go along with things and wait for Ru to show up. Hopefully, she'd arrive soon, and Li could get back to her own world and its problems.

"Oh, of course. Follow me." Hungary reached a hand towards Li, who blinked at it in confusion. There was an awkward moment of silence, and Hungary withdrew the hand. Li realized belatedly that she was supposed to take it, although the gesture still confused her. Hungary led Li to the door, and (with a little difficulty, as Russia was staring after them and the door somehow became stuck) brought her out into the hall. Reflexively, Li glanced back into the room as they left, and saw the men all staring after the two girls. Curiously, Germany seemed to be a bit red—maybe he had a cold?

The hallway was a bit run-down, but nice. It had been cleaned recently, but the walls were covered in some sort of paper that looked like it was peeling, and the wood floor was scuffed and marked. "Russia's house doesn't seem very lived-in." Li commented, glancing at a portrait on the wall. It was drawn in a strange style, but depicted Russia with three other men, who looked scared of him. "Does he have roommates?"

"His sister Belarus visits so much she might as well be living with him, but otherwise it's been just him for the past twenty or so years. Before then, he had a bunch of other nations living here with him. They called themselves the Soviet Union. It broke up a while ago, though." Hungary answered, stopping Li in front of a door. "Here. The bathroom's inside. I'll get some clothing and bring it in. There's hot water, so you should be able to have a nice, relaxing bath. Just turn the left spigot, not the right."

"Huh? O-okay." Li didn't want to let on that she had no idea what Hungary was talking about—spigots? Hot water? Li, as a Firebender, was able to warm her own bathwater, but she knew the rest of the world was accustomed to cold baths. Some nobles had furnaces to heat water for baths, and commoners sometimes heated water in fireplaces, but the only place in Li's world with significant plumbing was the Fire Nation. Word was the Earth Kingdom intended to try installing some in its cities, but what with recent events, Li doubted it would happen soon.

She entered the bathroom cautiously, and stopped in surprise just inside the door. It looked very Fire Nation, with a metal toilet, a metal tub, and a metal sink. Some sort of odd lamp hung overhead, emitting more light than heat, although Li could vaguely sense the flames within it. Admittedly, they were smaller flames than she had ever felt before, but they were there, and that was a little comforting. There was a water pipe over the tub, as well as one over the sink, but both had two handles on them. These, it seemed, were the spigots. They were surprisingly easy to turn, and Li put both on at full blast, hoping to fill the tub up more quickly. To ensure the water was warm, she stuck a hand in automatically and summoned heat to her palm.

Considering what happened with the candle, she should have expected what came next. Instead of the slow, gradual rise to a boil that Li usually got, the water super-heated in an amazingly short amount of time, and a minor explosion threw Li into the wall behind her, barely missing the sink. Steam filled the bathroom, making it nice and warm (it was actually a bit chilly in this place, but Li hadn't realized it until that point).

Li heard shouting, and realized the nations must have heard the explosion. She quickly checked to make sure she was okay—and decent—before the door crashed open and Russia appeared in the doorframe. Steam escaped the room, and he flinched backwards at the extreme heat before taking another step inside.

"Are you all right?" He asked, sounding slightly worried. Li wondered if maybe she wasn't being too judgmental, fearing him right off the bat, until she noticed his purple aura still hanging out around him. "_I'd hate for you to get hurt by something other than me_…" Russia probably didn't intend for anyone else to hear that, but Li caught it anyways. She resolved to be more careful in the future.

"I…I'm fine…but…the water…" Li wondered how she would explain the explosion, since it had been the result of her Firebending. There didn't seem to be any damage to the pipes, but water had been flung all around. "Umm…the water…sort of…exploded?" She felt that wasn't enough, and added, "I assume this doesn't happen around here normally either?"

"What happened?" Germany and Austria burst in, then stopped. "What…there's no damage? It's just wet?" Germany seemed puzzled. "It sounded like a bomb went off in here."

"The bathwater exploded. I think it's alive." Li explained, getting more comfortable with the lie. "Uhh…should I really take a bath here?"

"Yes, it should be safe. I expect it was just General Winter playing a trick of some sort." Russia grabbed Germany and Austria by the collar and began to drag them from the room. "Enjoy your bath, miss!" Li watched, worried, as the door swung shut on its own behind the men. Who in the world was General Winter, and why would he be messing with her bathwater? Furthermore, why did Russia seem to think it was perfectly normal for General Winter to _do_ that?

"These people are weird…" She muttered, before going back over to the bath. The remaining water was just too hot for safety, so Li ran more cold water into it until it was mostly full. Once that was done, she tested the water carefully, and found it a bit warm still. Deciding that, as a Firebender, she could afford to scald her skin off, Li stripped off the nightgown and glanced in a mirror hanging above the sink.

As she'd feared, she was a dirty, bloody mess. The nightgown had hidden the worst of the smears on her body, but her hair was definitely the biggest problem. It had started to dreadlock, which was an occurrence Li feared with unusually potent dread. She liked her hair long, but if it dreadlocked on her, she'd have to cut it short. Boyishly short, if not shave it off entirely. Li had once sported a very boyish hairdo, as well as an overall tomboyish style, until her twelfth birthday, when her cousin Kai had been assigned to her as a "lady-in-waiting" (coughbodyguardcough)—though everyone knew the real reason had been to girl Li up. After all, a Princess had to get married some day, and what man would want a wife who acted like another male?

So, with Kai's influence, Li had slowly become more girly, to the point where she refused to cut her hair on principle. Usually, her traditional Fire Nation topknot kept the hair out of her way, with the Crown Princess's headpiece aiding in that, but events of late had forced Li to simply braid it back. But now, it was seriously looking that Li would have to cut her hair short…

Well, she would try bathing first, and see how that went. Careful not to slip and fall, Li eased herself into the tub, and quickly relaxed in its warmth. She found some soap in a holder on the rim, and used it to clean off most of her body, staining the water pink. Finally only her hair was left to clean, and Li dunked her scalp underwater and began to rub at the long brown strands frantically, trying to un-clump them. They started to shed clots of dried blood, and barely separated from their clumps at all.

"Crap. I'm gonna have to cut it." Li ground her teeth, thoroughly annoyed. About six inches from her scalp was where the worst was: everything else seemed salvageable. But she would have to cut it. A quick check told Li that there was no knife in the bathroom—odd, seeing at it was Russia's, and she would have expected him to have a lot of knives around—and that there was no other form of sharp blade she could use to cut her hair with. The mirror was a possibility—Li had broken a few in her time, and knew the shards were always sharp—but she was a guest, and destroying her host's property just so she could cut her hair would be rude. But flames, did she want her hair cut already, so she could be rid of the disgusting, blood-caked mass! For a moment, she honestly considered using Firebending to burn it off—but her last few attempts at Firebending told her that it was probably not a good idea. She'd more likely set her whole head on fire.

The door creaked open an inch, and Li looked up, wondering if Hungary was bringing her some clothing. "Umm…Ms. Li…" A man's voice clearly said, and Li realized it was Germany. "Um, Russia wants me to ask you if you need anything…" He sounded embarrassed, and Li felt herself start to blush. Unnoticed to her, the bathwater began to steam.

"Er…" She wondered if she should ask for a knife to cut her hair, and decided she might as well. "If it's not too much trouble, could you lend me a knife to cut my hair with? It's pretty much beyond hope, so I might as well cut it now."

"A…knife?" Germany sounded puzzled. "Why not scissors?"

"What are scissors?" Li asked, completely honest and confused. She'd never heard of such a thing before. "Are they a type of knife?" There was silence beyond the door, and then Li heard Germany sigh. "What? Seriously, I don't know!"

"I'll…I'll give you a knife…" Li heard the distinctive sound of leather and metal scraping each other, and realized Germany already had a knife on him. Clever, that. "Here, can you come grab it?" A shaking hand appeared through the crack in the door, a knife grasped firmly by the hilt in it.

Li got out of the tub, splashing water on the floor, and sneaked behind the door to grab the knife. As a Firebender, her body temperature was naturally higher than a normal person's, and she was dry by the time she stood behind the door. "Thank y—" She began, reaching for the knife.

"Germany! What are you doing?" A young man's voice sounded, Italy's if Li remembered correctly. Germany let out a grunt, and the door flew open, knocking Li backwards as a startled Germany fell into the room, apparently having been tackle-hugged by Italy. The two landed on the floor near the middle of the room, while Li found herself sitting against a wall, knees up, staring at the two in shock.

There was a moment where Germany realized what Italy had done, and Italy looked around in confusion. The younger man spotted Li's white garment from before draped over a chair on the side of the bathroom opposite her, and turned his head quizzically to look at it. He was more or less lying on top of Germany, as the older nation had frozen.

"Germany, isn't this the bathroom?" Italy inquired curiously. Li felt her face begin to heat up, but was still too shocked to move. Out in the hallway, she heard footsteps, but her brain dismissed them as irrelevant, especially in comparison with the two men who had just landed on the bathroom floor.

Then Li's mind caught up with current events, and she screeched as loudly as she could. Outside, in the hallway, the footsteps sped up, and Hungary burst into the room, slamming the door backwards and only just missing hitting Li. "What's going on?" She yelled, then stopped and stared at the sight. A small pile of fabric resting her arms—presumably Li's clothing—dropped to the ground as she tried to absorb the bizarre scene before her.

"Germany was being weird and I hugged him and we fell in here." Italy answered. "I think it's the bathroom…oh, hi Li!" Hungary's jaw dropped as she stared at the younger nation, and Li felt herself heat up even more. This was probably the most embarrassing thing to ever happen to her. Back at home, her friends, well, they were terrible people, it was true, but…Li was fairly sure she had never had two men (accidentally or otherwise) burst in on her naked. Certainly, they had while she was partially clothed, but then none of them seemed to have any shame. Most of them didn't, at least.

It seemed Li's flustered state was working with her currently-out-of-control Bending to cause havoc, because the next thing Li knew, she could feel the tiny flames of the odd overhead lamp rising. Her heart was beating faster than she could ever remember, and she felt mortified and ashamed at her current lack of clothes, despite only Italy (who she didn't entirely count as a boy, having heard of his cross-dressing ways) having glanced her way yet. Even if she had tried to stop the next occurrence, she wouldn't have been able to. There was a crack-pop noise, and the odd lamp burst apart in a shower of glass shards and sparks.

"Yaah!" Li screamed, shielding her face with her hands. A few glass shards hit her legs, and one cut her arm, bringing out sharp lines of red. One more shard lodged itself in her palm, in the fleshy area of web between her thumb and pointer finger, where wounds always hurt more than they should. Germany, under Italy, didn't seem to get hurt at all, and Italy received a few cuts from broken glass, as well as a sting from a spark. Hungary got a few cuts to her arms and one to her cheek, but stood simply staring aghast at the scene.

With the lamp's destruction, and the absence of any windows in the bathroom, the only light entering was from the hallway. Li found herself in shadow—thank goodness—and tried to slowly calm herself by breathing deeply and evenly. It was better now that she couldn't be easily seen, and Li quickly got her powers back under control, although she was now extremely worried as to why they were out of control in the first place—and why they were suddenly so much stronger.

The explosion brought Germany back to life at last. He jerked up from the ground, throwing Italy off his back. With a critical eye, he observed the damage, which was pretty small for one of Li's incidents (forest fires mysteriously sprang into being when she was in the area, and she had no idea why, but she always managed to make them worse somehow). Hungary shakily raised a hand to her cut cheek, trembling in terror. But neither she nor Italy seemed seriously hurt, so Germany tried to locate Li, hoping she had also avoided any serious injury.

He spotted a vague shape behind the door, curled into a fetal position, that had to be Li. "Are you all right?" Germany shouted, taking the three steps required to reach her and grabbing her arm to haul her upright. Li complied out of pure shock at what had just happened, her mind still frozen with the realization that she had caused it. And…she was bleeding. Dear flames, she was bleeding. Li was hurt, and Ru wasn't there to pummel whoever had done it, even if it was Li herself.

"I…I…my hand…" Li stuttered in response to Germany's question before realizing that, even in the shadows behind the doorway, it was all too obvious she was naked. Germany seemed to realize it at the same time as her, and they both froze for a moment, horrified, staring into each other's eyes. There was more light on Germany than on Li, and she could see his embarrassed blush spreading rapidly.

"Umm…h-here…" Germany hastily removed his jacket, and handed it to Li. "W-wear this." Li took the jacket and fumbled it on, pulling it tight around her. Germany was a good half-foot or so taller than her, so the jacket covered Li enough to lighten her blush. Meanwhile, Germany was trying to keep his gaze averted from Li as she twisted her arms to get into the jacket. He did a fairly good job, but managed to completely forget about Italy and Hungary until Hungary found her voice at last.

"Italy!" The woman cried, coming to her senses and hurrying to kneel next to him. "Italy, honey, are you all right? Are you hurt?"

"Nn…I'm fine, thank you." Italy sat up, not noticing the most prominent injury, a cut on his shoulder. "That, that was scary! The lightbulb just exploded on its own! Why are things exploding around here? Should I be worried?" He seemed so adorably oblivious to his injuries that Hungary was tempted not to mention them, but she was worried that he might be seriously hurt.

"Italy, you're bleeding!" Hungary cried, taking a handkerchief from her pocket. "Don't move, don't move!" Her advice was given in vain, because the moment Italy looked down to see the blood on his arm, he freaked out.

"Aaaahh! I'm bleeding! Help! Help! I'm dying! Aaaah!" He panicked, jumping up and down. "Germany! Hungary! Help me! I'm bleeding, I'm dying, AAAAHHHH!"

"N-no, Italy, you just have a scratch!" Hungary insisted, trying to grab him and calm the younger man down. "It's nothing serious, but we should bandage it just in case!"

"I'M GONNA LOSE MY ARM!" Italy wailed, taking things extremely out of proportion. Germany solved the problem by putting Italy in a stranglehold, nearly knocking him out and silencing the loud nation. Hungary quickly bandaged Italy's cut while Germany held him upright. Li took a cautious step towards the forgotten pile of clothing on the floor, but when the light from the hallway illuminated her scarred feet, she turned and quickly retreated back to the shadows. Unfortunately, she didn't bother to remember that when the odd lamp (lightbulb) had exploded, broken glass had gone everywhere. Also unfortunately, where the nations were wearing shoes, Li was barefoot.

"Aah!" Li yelped in surprise as a stabbing pain shot up her leg. Instinctively, she jumped backwards, which resulted in her colliding with Hungary. The women fell onto Italy, Li barely managing to look decent with only Germany's jacket on. For the second time in less than a minute, Li found herself staring up at Germany, blushing furiously.

"Maybe we should get out of this room." Hungary suggested, voice muffled on account of her face being pressed into Italy's chest. Li nodded vigorously, and Germany looked away. The women shakily untangled themselves, and Li supported herself on the bathtub while keeping her injured foot from touching the ground. Germany scooped Italy up, and Hungary led them out of the room, grabbing the clothes on the way.

Which left Li standing next to the bathtub, barefoot, unsure where there might be broken glass on the floor, and without anything to cover herself with.

* * *

**Li: NOOOOO!**

** Me: Well, I'm done being evil to Li today...nah, it's too much fun.**

** Li: *attempts to strangle* I HATE YOUUUUU!**

** Me: Yeah, I know. *fending off Li* Now then! I'd like to set my lovely reviewers a challenge and a request! The request is...well, I'm getting close to Chapter Fifteen, and I'd like to ask you lot to suggest to me, via reviews or PMs, a phrase or sentance you want to see in that chapter. I will choose my favorite, and it shall enter the story! As for the challenge...let's get 8 reviews this chapter! (or more...more is good...)**

** Li: *growling in demonic voice* I WILL END YOU!**

** Me: *sticks out tongue, runs off laughing* NEVER!**


	6. Embarrassment

**Me: *sitting in corner***

**Li: *attempts to sneak out the door***

**Me: Nice try, dance monkey. But no.**

**Li: I'm not a dance monkey!**

**Me: I own you.**

**Li: But not Hetalia, or the Avatar world. Now why are you so mopey?**

**Me: Only 6 reviews…the pattern has been broken…**

**Li: *facepalms***

* * *

Li allowed herself a moment to wait, in case the three nations (she was still trying to wrap her mind around that, but as time went on she was grasping it better) remembered and came back for her, but after five minutes accepted that they weren't. Grumbling about the way these people seemed to be able to forget small details—such as _her_—Li hopped her way to the door safely. There were a few doors in the hallway, and Li couldn't remember which had led to her room. If Italy, Germany, and Hungary had even gone there.

"Excuse me, I heard a noise. Did something ha—" Austria appeared from around a corner, followed by Russia and three other men Li didn't recognize. Seeing Li, wearing only Germany's jacket (which showed a lot of leg) and hopping on one foot, he froze mid-sentence. Li winced, knowing her first impression on the man hadn't been very good. Now she must look like a total nutcase. It seemed like she could only dig herself a deeper grave with this.

"Yes." Li decided blunt answers would be best. "A lamp exploded in the bathroom, on the ceiling. Hungary was bringing me clothes, but Italy got hurt by the lamp because he tackled Germany into the room without realizing what room it was, so they had to knock him out to bandage him up and then they left and I have no idea where they went. Also, Germany loaned me his jacket, but I'd really prefer to wear actual clothing, so do you know where they went? Hungary had some things for me to wear, but she took them with her when she went with Germany to look after Italy."

Li's rapid response was met with a moment of silence, as the five men simply stared at her. Then Austria sighed and removed his much-longer-than-Germany's jacket, walked over to Li, and draped it on her shoulders. "They must have gone to put Italy into one of the other guest bedrooms." The aristocratic young man informed Li. "Come. I'll take you to your room."

"Huh? Okay…?" Li was confused now. She was pretty sure Austria didn't like her, but he was giving her his coat and showing her to her room. He had screamed she was a danger, and demanded she be thrown from the house upon her latest awakening, but now he was quiet and reserved. Had something happened between the point of him and Germany being dragged/carried from the bathroom (following the completely accidental bathwater explosion) and now to cause him to change his mind about her? No, that was stupid…

Li glanced back at Russia to assure herself he wasn't about to attack her or anything, and noticed that the men behind him were staring at her legs. She glanced down, and glared at the delicate scars that went up to mid-calf on both legs, giving the burn marks on her ankle a particularly poisonous regard. They were probably why Austria was being so nice to her suddenly. Upon seeing the marks, most people acted the same way. Really, it wasn't like Li wanted people to act like that—why else would she insist on hiding the scars? Not that she could do anything about them seeing her scars right now…

Austria took Li's elbow on her injured leg's side, and began to help her limp/hop her way towards one of the doors in the hallway. Unsure of whether this meant Austria could be counted as an ally, or if he was just extremely kind to women (when they weren't acting like berserk fighting machines), Li tried not to lean on him too much. Her foot hurt like hell, but it wasn't as bad as when she'd gotten those scars. And she'd run for miles after getting them. Thinking of the injuries made Li glare down at them again, wishing she could have gotten to Ming—one of the greatest Waterbender Healers in the Water Tribes—sooner. Spirit Oasis water might remove them now, but Li didn't want to risk using up Ming's precious supply of the special liquid just for vanity's sake.

"Here. This was your room." Austria opened a door to reveal the slightly-familiar room to Li, and helped her limp inside to a chair, set before a desk with a mirror. "I should get some bandages for your foot." He stood to leave, but Li cut him off with her words.

"Um, could you get me a knife to cut my hair with?" Li requested, stopping the man dead in his tracks. "My hair's pretty much hopeless, and I might as well cut it." She emphasized this by picking at a clump with her finger, getting red on her nail. "Ergh. Yeah. Knife. Please."

"Why not just use a pair of scissors?" Austria asked in incredulity. Li shrugged.

"I have no idea what 'scissors' are?" She suggested in response. "Besides, I always cut my hair with a knife when I was a kid. And my hair's a disgusting mess, so I'd like to get it cut already." Li resisted the urge to shake her head, which would have likely resulted in a few gobs of clotted blood flying around. How had she not noticed the state of her hair earlier? Admittedly, she'd had some distractions…like being undressed by strange men, always a good one on the distraction scale, or not knowing where she was, or her Firebending freaking out on her, or the tiny fact that _Ru was not here…_

Just minor stuff, you know.

"Very well…I will get something to cut your hair with…" Austria sighed. Li thanked him as he left, and then turned her attention to the problem of the glass shards in her hand and foot.

Well, she didn't exactly have the best medical knowledge, but she was fairly sure you were supposed to leave such things in. They were hurting more than Li thought they should, however, and she'd dealt with excessive blood loss before. As well as having all the blood in her body drained out of her by an insane Waterbender, though she wasn't positive that she'd survived due to her own amazing talents. Still, surely she could handle taking out a couple measly shards of glass?

Austria entered the room ten minutes later, carrying a roll of medical tape, some gauze, a pair of scissors, and a few towels, to find Li panicking at her bleeding foot. She'd managed to take a blanket off the bed, and was using it like a sort of toga-dress to cover herself. Germany's jacket and his own overcoat were neatly folded over the back of a chair, sporting a few spots from the places where Li's blood-soaked hair had brushed against the fabric.

"What did you _do_?" Austria cried in dismay. "You're supposed to leave such things _in_ until the area can be properly bandaged!"

"I know! I know!" Li gasped, freaking out at the blood and trying to put pressure on the open wound with her hand. "It was in deeper than I thought! It must've hit a vein or something! I-I just wanted to get it out, so I pulled it out after I took the shard out of my hand, and, and, and, it just started bleeding like crazy! My hand wasn't bleeding so much so I figured it'd be fine! But-but-but—!" Her words were lost as she tried in vain to stem the blood, with little effect.

"Honestly…" Austria muttered, then walked over and knelt next to Li. "Here, allow me." Li reluctantly moved her hands from the wound, and Austria quickly took a towel and pressed it over the area. "Now, hold that on while I prepare to bandage the area." Gritting her teeth at the pain—had the glass hit a nerve or something?—Li complied, watching curiously as Austria unwound a length of medical tape and neatly clipped it off with the scissors. He was muttering something under his breath, so softly Li couldn't make it out.

"Umm…sorry…" Li mumbled, shamefaced. "I'm not so good with injuries and all…my friends tell me all the time…they yell at me too…" She fell silent as Austria quickly removed the towel and replaced it with a piece of gauze. It stung a bit when the white material replaced the soft, fluffy towel, but she swallowed it pridefully. There would be no yelps of pain from her. Not anymore.

"I'm not yelling." Austria sighed. "But I do find that, even though I have known you for less than an hour, I already doubt your ability to look after yourself. It's not a very comforting realization."

"Imagine how I feel…" Li muttered, looking on moodily as Austria began to wrap the bleeding area in medical tape. The gauze was quickly covered, and her foot was soon covered in white. She thought her leg looked sort of like one of the Si Wong Desert mummies, which had only been discovered recently. In fact, she remembered with a hint of a smile, her friend had been the one doing the discovering. Way to go, Professor! Keep up the good work!

"That should be enough for now." Austria finished with Li's foot, and in a smooth motion that Li could only envy, stood upright once more. "I advise you try to keep your weight off of that foot. It will take a while to heal, and if it's still bleeding in a few days, tell someone so they can take you to a hospital to get stitches." Li shuddered at the thought of that—she'd never needed to have her skin sewn up like a torn garment, a fact she was greatly thankful for. If she'd ever been injured at all, even the smallest cut, a Waterbender Healer would be called up from the nearby hospital to tend to her. One of the few things Li had enjoyed about being the Fire Lord's daughter. Even recently, as a fugitive, she'd had the benefit of her friend Ming's Healing abilities to ensure quick recoveries from cuts, scratches, or anything else that broke the skin and caused pain.

"Thank you…" Li considered standing up, but decided against it. Instead, she looked towards the door, wondering if Hungary would remember to bring her some clothing anytime soon. "Umm…I don't suppose you saw Hungary on your way to get those things, or on the way back?"

"She has likely been distracted by Italy's condition." Austria guessed, putting the roll of medical tape and the towels on the desk, being careful to set the dirty towel away from the clean ones. "Now turn around and face the mirror. I'm going to cut your hair." With that, he brandished the scissors.

"Huh? But I can do it." Li frowned, but nevertheless turned around to face the mirror. She had decided by now that the best way to improve her standing with Austria was to do what he said, when he said it. "Just gimme a knife. And what are you holding?"

"These," Austria said calmly as he picked up a clean towel, "are scissors. And they are much better at cutting hair than a knife. So please allow me to cut your hair. It appears that most of it is a lost cause, but there is a good length that can still be rescued."

"But…" Li sighed. She loved her hair, it was true, but cutting it was the only option at this point. And she didn't want to argue with Austria over it, partially because he already thought little of her, partially because she could use some time to think. Things were happening so quickly, it seemed, and Li wasn't sure what was really going on. People who called themselves nations had taken her in after finding her bloody—though, apparently, uninjured—in the snow, and seemed to be her best bet for surviving here. "Here," which, from what Li could figure out, was a completely different world. Not that she was sure of that yet, of course, oh no, but she didn't see many other possibilities. Add to that the problem of when Ru would finally appear…Li hadn't been separated from Ru for longer than a day, maximum. That record was probably broken by now. And without Ru to look out for her, nag her about training and stand a silent guard over her no matter what she was doing…Li wasn't sure she knew what to do without Ru around.

"I will leave as much as I can." Austria reassured her, picking up on her anxiety. Li shifted uneasily and looked at her bloodstained hair in the mirror. It really did look terrible…only the first six inches were in any way salvageable, and the dark red-brown stains hid her hair's true color. She would have to wash it again after it was cut, preferably with some sort of soap. Maybe scented soap, to get rid of that awful iron scent that the blood was imbuing her hair with.

Austria put the towel between Li's back and her hair, presumably to prevent any of the cut strands from falling down the back of the sheet Li was using as a makeshift robe, then began to cut away. His scissors snipped as he carefully cut away at the congealed mass of blood and hair, slowly but surely separating the worst of the clumps from Li's head. As he cut, Li noticed her head began to feel lighter, and almost laughed at how nice it felt. Maybe cutting her hair wasn't as bad as she'd feared…one thing her cousin had forgotten to mention about long hair was how heavy it could get.

After perhaps ten minutes, Li's hair was an uneven mess, still speckled with blood but nowhere near as bad as the dreadlocks on the floor. Austria used another towel to attempt to clean her hair out a bit more, but it didn't do much. "You'll just have to wash your hair again." He said, putting the towels and scissors down. "I can make your hair look more even after that."

"Okay, thank you." Li spoke quietly, looking at herself in the mirror intently. It had been so long since she'd had hair this short—about seven years! At the time, she had been eleven, angry at most of the world, and pretending to be a boy. She'd also been looking for her elder half-brother, which had been harder than she'd thought at the time. Actually, it had been him to find her…but she had managed to have multiple adventures, which had taught her lessons that kept on coming in handy.

The pain in Li's foot intensified, and she winced involuntarily, caught off-guard by the stabbing sensation. Unwilling to allow herself to betray how bad it felt, she forced her expression to relax into a practiced look of bland, general disinterest. Austria, who was attempting to wipe the blood off of the scissors with a towel, didn't seem to have noticed her slip.

The door to her room opened, and Li turned to see who it was. Russia entered, followed by the three men Li had seen with him in the hallway. Actually, it might have been better to call them two men and one boy, for one of the three was about the size of a thirteen-year-old boy. All of them seemed nervous, and they kept giving Russia scared looks. One of them, who had brown hair that seemed more natural to Li than the yellow hair that so many other people here had, was holding a bundle of fabric that looked a lot like clothing to Li.

"I had Lithuania find some old clothes of his for you." Russia told Li happily, gesturing to the trembling brunette. "They're men's clothes, but they should fit you. He seems to be close to your height." The gigantic man smiled gently, a purple aura of ill intent coalescing around him. Lithuania held them out with a wobbly smile on his face, looking like most of his concentration was on not screaming in terror of Russia.

"Oh, thank you." Li smiled, and glanced at her bandaged foot, wondering if she could walk on it. Lithuania solved the problem by walking over to Li (after looking to Russia and getting a nod of permission) and setting the clothing down on the desk. He took the topmost article of clothing out, and shook it out to reveal a button-up shirt of dark green.

"Your old clothing was red." He explained, smiling bashfully at Li. "But I don't have anything still wearable that's red, so I thought maybe you'd look good in green. Do you mind?"

"Huh? Oh, no, I don't mind…but…" Li frowned. "I…wasn't wearing red…before whatever happened…happened. I was wearing blue. With purple and black. Not red." Lithuania's mouth opened, and moved a few times as if he was trying to talk, but only a half-moan, half-strangling noise came out. His eyes darted to Russia in fear, and Li grew alarmed at the thought that she might have just gotten someone in trouble. "B-but the blood may have made it look…!" She tried to help out, but trailed off as she thought back to her first awakening.

"You were in red." Austria told Li firmly. "I remember exactly what you were wearing. Red pants tucked into black and red boots, a black shirt, and a red coat with oddly-designed golden buttons. There was no trace of blue, much less purple." Li's mouth opened, and she let out a sound eerily similar to Lithuania's before managing to shut it. Utter disbelief crossed her face, followed by fear, then worry, then a forced blank look. Her breathing became deep and regular, controlled inhalations and exhalations through the nose.

After thirty seconds of her controlled breathing, Li looked up at Austria carefully. "So," she said, voice slightly strained, "you're saying I was wearing clothing that I do not remember having on last?" Her tone made it clear that she didn't expect anything good had happened during the time she couldn't remember. Austria hesitated before answering.

"Well, unless you were wearing red but have forgotten…" He stopped altogether at the look on Li's face. The girl looked like she was forcibly keeping herself calm, eyes wider than they should be with a trace of fear in them. Lithuania and the two men Li didn't know looked shocked. Russia, in contrast, still had that small, childish smile on his face, looking for all the world like Li hadn't just pointed out an inconsistency in what had happened.

"I see." Li whispered, mind racing. Her clothing had been changed. Why? What would be the purpose? From Water Tribe clothing, blue and purple and black, to Fire Nation red—she couldn't miss the meaning there. Had there been some significance to changing her clothing for whoever had done this, or had it merely been a whim? Some attempt to remind Li of who she was? As if she needed reminding, with her legs covered in scars!

The time lapse regarding the moon might not simply be the result of leaving her own world, either, Li surmised. Originally she had thought the shift from full to crescent moon had been due to the differences between this world and her own. Now, it seemed quite possible to Li that the moon was indeed in the same phase in her own world, and something had happened between her almost-death at Meiko's hands and her awakening here that had included her wardrobe change. That...that changed matters somewhat. If she had indeed lost a portion of time between then and now, whatever had happened might give her some answers.

But…for now, Li had no way of figuring out what had happened, and every reason to investigate the going-ons of this place. Whatever had happened, wherever her memories had gone, Li decided that they would still be there when she found time to wonder later. At present, she was being looked after by people who claimed to be beings that would know quite a bit about the situation in this world, and who also might be able to help Li find someplace to stay until Ru could arrive. Because Ru _would_ come, Li knew: she would more readily believe that the dead could rise than that Ru wouldn't come for her.

Yes. Li would first arrange something to ensure her survival until Ru arrived, then look for answers to her appearance here. She took a deep, steadying breath upon reaching this conclusion, then fixed a small, automatic smile on her face and looked at the others in the room.

"Can you leave while I change, please?" She asked politely, reaching for the shirt Lithuania was holding up. "I should probably wear something other than a sheet. Oh, and maybe you could get a servant to bring me some water to finish washing my hair? This seems like a fairly big house, so I'm assuming you must have servants."

"I'll see to it." Russia smiled creepily, and Li felt a chill of fear wash down her spine. "Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, come along. Austria, do you mind coming too? I don't think she wants us to watch her change, do you?" The purple aura around the tall man intensified, making Li shrink back instinctively out of fear. He gave her a happy little nod, then turned and strode out of the room. Lithuania and the two others—Estonia and Latvia—followed him quickly, and after a pause Austria left the room as well.

Li turned to the clothing Lithuania had brought, still holding the shirt. In addition to that, there was a pair of some odd, rough pants in a dark blue shade that were made out of a fabric totally foreign to Li. She spared a moment to rub the material between her fingers, marveling at the feel of it. If anything, this helped sink in that she was not in the Four Nations. Nothing like this existed there.

Unwrapping the sheet Li had used to clothe herself temporarily, she slipped the shirt on and did the buttons up. It was a bit too large for her, the sleeves ending around her fingertips and the bottom of the shirt hanging around her lower thighs. The odd pants went on next, and Li found with some surprise that there was a sort of fastening device on the front (which she originally thought was the back, until she tried them on and realized her mistake) that made the pants fit quite snugly around her waist. A belt was also present, and Li put it on to ensure the pants didn't suddenly decide they were too big for her once she stood up.

All the time she was dressing, Li was sitting down. She was reluctant to put pressure on her foot, which still hurt a little. Now that she was dressed, albeit in clothing too big for her, Li debated seeing if anyone was waiting outside for her. But she could also use this opportunity to look around the room a little, if her foot would allow. While it was unlikely anything in the room would reveal something important, it might at least give Li some insight into the sort of place she was in.

Such as, for example…was she a prisoner? The treatment she'd received so far said no, but Li would not put it past these people to be clever enough to put up a front of concern and kindness while plotting to get information from her. Someone had told Li that she thought very little of people—this might be true, but considering Li had grown up in the Fire Nation Royal Palace as the number one target for anyone who wanted power, she thought she was rather trusting. After all, her father had grown up in the same position as Li, and he trusted absolutely nobody, not even his own wife. Although, that might not come from a lack of trust so much as a the fact that said wife was insane, and had murdered his former lover.

So, it was entirely possible Li was a prisoner. She had to figure out if she was one soon, for if she was, it would complicate things. "Complicate," meaning she would have to escape, and that would have to wait until her foot was better. Oh, why couldn't there be a Healer around when Li needed one? Though she could just be spoiled—commoners had to deal with these things without the help of a Healer, and they got along just fine. Besides, it wasn't like Li couldn't handle the pain. But the sheer inconvenience of her foot being injured was more than a little frustrating. Would she need crutches to walk? That would be humiliating…

There was a knock at the door, and Li looked up to see Hungary peering into the room. "I'm so sorry, Li!" She cried, looking worried. "Italy's injury distracted me! I brought some clothes, but it looks like you got some from someone else already. Oh, your foot! What happened?"

"Hm?" Li glanced down to her mostly-hidden foot, and realized there was some blood staining the bandages at the bottom. "Oh…I stepped on a shard of glass. Austria bandaged it up for me after I was stupid and took the glass out. It was bleeding pretty badly…but, uh, you probably guessed that." Li's face flushed as she noticed the blood she'd gotten on the floor. "Don't suppose you have anything I can clean this mess up with?"

"No, but I can ask Austria for something." Hungary replied. "Also, Germany was very worried when he remembered we'd left you alone in the bathroom. Can I tell him he can look in on you, or would you rather be left alone?"

"He can stop by, I guess." Li answered. "Thank you." Hungary smiled and disappeared, the door shutting behind her. Alone again, Li slumped back in her seat and sighed loudly. She looked up at the ceiling, noting the slight variations in the plaster, and tried to think of something that might get her home faster. Ru. It all came back to waiting for Ru. Until Ru came, what could Li do, really? Her foot was injured, she had no idea where she was, she couldn't afford to tell these people—these nations—these whatever-they-ares who she really was…!

Li entertained the idea, for one second, of telling them who she was, just to see their reactions. She wasn't sure how highly they were ranked in their own governments—were they more powerful than their leaders? Or were they advisors? Maybe they didn't even have any influence at all…no, that was foolish to consider. If the human embodiment of the Fire Nation was running around her home-world, Li would constantly ask his opinion, advice, and permission for anything pertaining to her duties as a member of the royal family. And if he could tell her how her people felt about certain things…hm. She would have to make a point of enquiring what nations could and couldn't do later.

The door creaked, and Li glanced over, wondering what in the world it would be this time.

* * *

**Me: Oh, my depression almost made me forget.**

**Li: What is it now? *sighs***

**Me: Well, several people have expressed an interest in reading your story before all this happens.**

**Li:…you wouldn't dare.**

**Me: Silly dance monkey. Of course I would! Which is why, Saturday or Sunday, we'll see what happens **

**with this, I'm going to post the first chapter of YOUR story! It'll be under Avatar: The Last Airbender stories in Cartoons. Name...still under debate. I'm not quite sure what I'm gonna do wit it.**

**Li: Technically…technically it's not just my story! There are other people too! Ru, Kai, Huo, Hong, Liandao, so many other people!**

**Me: But you're the person I'm writing it about…you and Ru, at least. Well, technically the Fair One is writing for Ru. But you're the main characters.**

**Li: Fair One?**

**Me: Yeah. She's pretty fair. I mean, get her out in the sun in June, she buuuurns. **

**Li: …**

**Me: I know. It was a bad pun. Bad me.**

**Li: I reiterate; I do not like you.**

**Me: Well, in other news! I would like to take this chance to formally dedicate this entire story to the Hetalia Master, without whom I would not have even known Hetalia existed! She is an amazing, wonderful person, and deserves much love and cookies. Especially cookies! SEND COOKIES TO THE HETALIA MASTER IN PRAISE OF HER GREATNESS!**


	7. Lies

**Me: Hey! The prequel story for Li is up! First chapter's kinda slow, but it'll tell you Li's story!**

**Li: Don't read it...please...for the love of the spirits...**

**Me: Also, I taught Li a new trick! :D**

**Li: *wearing flamingo costume* I hate you. **

**Me: 3:D *cracks whip***

**Li: *starts to do chicken dance* Karen doesn't own Hetalia or Avatar! Just her characters! Sadly, that includes ME!**

* * *

Germany poked his head into Li's room, and upon seeing her at the desk with the mirror (there had to be a name for it, Li would ask later) opened the door all the way. Austria was behind him, followed by a person holding a bowl of water and some new, clean towels. Russia followed them, without the three men who had accompanied him last time. Li was a bit disappointed, partially because she had thought Lithuania seemed like a nice enough person, partially because that was three less people to use as potential shields should Russia try to attack.

"Thank you." Li accepted the bowl of water and towels from the unknown man, whom she presumed was a servant. He smiled politely at her, then left the room, depriving her of another possible shield in case of Russia's insanity. There were a few moments of awkward silence, as Li waited for one of the men to say something and they all simply stared at her. Finally, Li took one of the new towels and dunked it in the water, soaking it thoroughly before beginning to dab at her hair. The blood that was more-or-less caked into the now-short hair finally began to disappear, staining the towel red.

Meanwhile, the three men simply stared at Li, making her feel acutely uncomfortable. Russia's childish smile was creeping her out, making Li wish she could read minds so she could know what in the world he was _thinking _about. Although, that might only disturb her more…but she felt like he was about to murder her, staring at her like that! How was she supposed to feel?

Li's hair was mostly clean by the time Germany spoke up. "So, you're feeling better then?" He asked gruffly, crossing his arms. His gaze drifted to the jackets folded neatly on the back of Li's chair, then to the towels on the desk. Seeing the blood that stained several of the towels, he quickly looked away, directing his attention now to the portion of Li's foot that was still visible.

"Well, I'm not going to fall asleep on you." Li smiled a bit, remembering the previous time she'd woken up, only to fall asleep ten minutes later. Nobody else seemed to get her little joke, so she continued. "I suppose I could do with something to eat later. Not right now, I don't think my stomach could take anything. It's feeling a bit…rebellious, I suppose."

"If you're feeling better, perhaps we could take some time to ask you a few questions." Austria suggested casually. Li felt a swell of icy panic in her stomach, which her face was probably showing. She hadn't thought of a backstory for herself yet. Not that anything she could think of would be believed anyways, since she knew nothing about this place. How much truth could she tell them? Definitely nothing about her status in the Fire Nation, or the world for that matter, much less her Bending and the reason for the explosions. If they believed her, they would definitely imprison her, and Li couldn't have that. Ru would be mad at her, for one.

They wanted an answer. Austria and Germany were studying Li's face closely, trying to gage her reaction. Russia simply kept smiling, looking cute and childish and murderous. Li swallowed, and tried to answer as nonchalantly as she could manage. "S-sure, ask anything you want." No, they wouldn't be suspicious of her after that brilliant rhetoric.

True to Li's thoughts, Austria's face grew untrusting. "Very well, then." He began smoothly. "Shall we start with where you're from? The first time you awoke, you said you were 'Li Wu of the Fire Nation."

"Um, yeah." Li cursed her stupidity, wondering how to get out of that hole. Why had she told them who she was the moment she'd woken up? Well, with her wanted poster being found almost everywhere back home, and her not knowing she wasn't in the Nations anymore, it probably hadn't seemed like a problem at the time. "My name's Li. Li Wu. Most everyone calls me Li."

"Well, I've never heard of this 'Fire Nation' you say you're from." Austria continued, face serious. "Neither has anyone else. There is no embodiment that we are aware of for a 'Fire Nation,' and nobody remembers any such nation existing. Where is it?"

"Er…depends." Li admitted, trying to think of how to get out of this. "Where is 'Russia'? I've never heard of it before, and that's where someone—Hungary, I think—says we are. Ah, no offense to you, sir!" She added hastily, turning to Russia, whose purple aura had manifested. "It's just…my home's really isolated. And kinda…small. We don't have much contact with the outside world." No, nearly conquering the rest of her home-world wasn't contact at all. "So, I might not be able to place it on a map."

"You said that, last you remembered, you were at the North Pole." Austria reminded Li. "But as I'm sure you're aware, it gets very cold up there. Few people go there. Furthermore, why would you have gone to the North Pole if your country is so isolated?"

"Hm? Ah…" Li's mind began to race, trying to come up something witty and sharp. Nothing surfaced for a full minute, and she could practically feel the level of distrust rising in the room. "I was…there with my…friends?" Almost wincing at how lame it sounded, despite it being the truth, Li decided to be a bit more honest. "We're sort of…wanted. Not in a good way. Back home. Political thing with this new government, and due to a few family connections and a lot of accidents, mostly being in the wrong place at the wrong time, me and maybe thirteen other people were on the run. This crazy bitch, Meiko, was hunting us for a while. She caught up with us at the North Pole, and that's the last thing I remember." Mostly true. The last thing she remembered was, more or less, Meiko catching her…but she was leaving out the part about dying. Nearly dying. Whatever had happened to her. "But I'm pretty sure that if I'm still alive, she's not after me anymore."

"I see." Austria seemed to ponder her words for a few minutes, while Li sat anxiously. Germany's face was bland, and Russia's expression hadn't changed from the childlike serial murderer face. The aristocratic young man (nation?) finally came to some decision, and closed his eyes briefly before speaking again. "For now, I think I'll leave it at that. However, I am curious about how there could be a whole nation—however small you say it is—that we do not know about."

Li's heart sank. She could tell he didn't believe her. And if he didn't, Germany and Russia had probably seen through her story as well. Admittedly, it was a seriously edited version of the truth, but there had been no—well, maybe a little—okay so there was freaking huge bit that had been sheer lying. There was little chance of the truth being believed—"Yes, hi, I'm a princess from another world."—and even if it was, there was the obvious risk of what would happen if Meiko or one of her associates showed up. News like that would spread, even if a cover-up was established, and Meiko was scarily good at getting information. If Li told the truth, she had no doubt it would come back to bite her in the ass. Quite possibly literally.

"Hey, I had no idea there was a place named 'Russia.' Imagine how I feel." Li tried to joke, but it came out rather weakly. A thought occurred to her, and she traced the carpeted floor with her unbandaged foot before daring to speak up again. "Um…can I ask something?"

"What is it?" Germany spoke again, only the second time since his arrival. He sounded tense, as if he was expecting something embarrassing. Li once again remembered what he'd been doing the first time she awoke, and blushed deeply before coughing and clearing her head.

"Are you…are you all..." She didn't know how to ask it. "Are you all…nations?" There, she'd asked it. Now they would blink in surprise, then laugh, okay probably not laugh, but they would explain that no, they were only diplomats, or political representatives, and Li would laugh at her foolishness and set about winning their trust as best she could while hiding her identity.

"Of course we are." Austria said bluntly almost the second the words were out of Li's mouth, overlapping Germany's "Yes." Russia still didn't speak, but nodded once, his pink scarf making it hard to see his creepy smile. "Our existence isn't very well-known, however. Common citizens are usually unaware of our presence. Some of us do prefer to be unknown, but mostly we just don't tell anyone."

"Oh. That…makes sense. I guess." Li frowned, wondering why she'd never met an embodiment of the Fire Nation. "But then…what, are you the power behind the governments?"

"Oh no, of course not." Austria pushed his glasses higher on his nose. "We hold positions that could be best described as consulting. Our leaders certainly ask our opinions, and require our signatures for some things, but mostly we are unneeded in this day and age. In the past, we were much more useful, as we can give a general idea of our population's wishes without having to consult anyone, and representing their interests in the government, but what with the advent of computers and cell phones and the like, that part of our job is mostly obsolete now. Typically we merely attend monthly meetings and discuss world matters."

"Oh. Okay." Li couldn't think of anything else to say, so she let it go at that. She had no idea what 'computers' or 'cell phones' were, but was afraid of seeming odd by asking. Should she tell them about the levels of technology in her home? It would be hard to pretend to know more than she did…perhaps she could simply say she came from a very backwards land? Would they believe that?

So. She was in a land—a world—that seemed to be radically different from her own. Human embodiments of nations walked around as they pleased, there were technologies she had never heard of, and the Fire Nation was unknown—presumably the Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes, and the Air Nomads as well. Her story hadn't won her much trust, and Li had no knowledge of how to survive here. Could she claim political asylum, by citing her status as a wanted man—woman—person? Admitting that was starting to seem like a bad idea. What if they thought she was a criminal? What if they locked her up? What if Meiko appeared and convinced them _she_ was really the good guy and Li was a horrible war criminal…what if…what if…

Li put her head in her hands, massaging her temples in an attempt to make the quickly-approaching headache stop in its tracks. What about her people? The people of the Fire Nation? What was happening to them, now that Li was no longer there to fight for them? Despite hating being born into the Fire Lord's family, Li took her duty to her people seriously. She was able to distance herself from the stories, usually, of how the Fire Nation was getting the worst treatment out of the Four Nations, how taxes were rising to crippling levels while the amount of resources the Fire Nation had were being stripped away. Patriotism was a core part of Li—she had been raised with the knowledge that the Fire Nation was great, and powerful, and could probably conquer all the other countries if it bothered to. They almost had, 150 years ago, and nobody doubted that they still could.

"Please excuse us." Russia spoke at last, his voice making Li jump in surprise. "We need to talk with the others. I trust you'll be all right by yourself?"His aura had dimmed, now merely a purple haze floating around him, and Li felt confident enough to nod a yes. "Then we'll be off!" Russia strode out of the room, followed by a hesitant Austria and Germany.

"What do you think she's hiding?" Austria asked Germany as soon as the nations were a good ways down the hall. "I have no doubt that there's something she doesn't want us to know about herself. And her admission that she is a wanted fugitive could bring us trouble."

"I'm sure she'll be just fine." Russia answered cheerily. "Didn't you see how she threw me? She's so strong! _She'll be a wonderful addition to Russia…_" Germany and Austria both cringed instinctively as Russia's evil purple aura flared.

"You don't know that she won't want to return home." Austria gulped as Russia turned his attention to the other nation. "B-but I suppose we'll have to ask her later what she intends to do. In the meantime, the other nations must be waiting for us in the living room, yes?"

"Ah, good idea." Russia gave a small smile to the aristocrat, and began to walk towards the stairs. Austria and Germany followed him silently, knowing that if they didn't there was a good chance they could lost in the huge mansion. It was amazing that Russia was able to find his way about, even if he lived there. Admittedly, much of the house was beginning to fall into disrepair since the breakup of the Soviet Union, and many areas were now unused…

Downstairs, ten nations were in the living room, littered about the spacious area. The Baltics were standing near a window in a huddle, whispering amongst themselves, but when they saw Russia they quickly fell silent and stood at attention. England and France were on different couches, the thick-eyebrowed nation glancing suspiciously at the elder every once in a while. Hungary sat as far away from France as possible, eyeing him and fingering a large frying pan. America had taken a position leaning against the wall, watching the others with interest. Sweden was sitting in a chair near the fireplace, being quiet and looking intimidating. China and Japan were sitting together on a couch, closer to England and Hungary than France or Sweden. Everyone glanced to the three new nations as they appeared, though the Baltics' reaction was by far the most pronounced.

"How'd it go?" England spoke first, leaning back in his chair. "Did you get her story?" His attitude suggested he didn't expect much. He focused on Austria, well known to be the most talkative of the three, while Germany sat in a chair near Sweden and Russia went to stand beside the Baltics, making them shake like maracas.

"We got a story. I wouldn't say we got a completely true one, although parts of it seemed true." Austria sighed, and took a seat in an armchair. "She definitely lied, though. Which makes me wonder what she's hiding from us."

"If she's hiding something, maybe it's best not to pry?" Hungary suggested, looking away from France to add her input. "I mean, she must have a good reason to hide things about herself."

"I'm not so sure, Hungary." Austria sighed. "She freely admitted that she was being hunted by some sort of assassin. According to her, the assassin caught up with her and a group of her friends at the North Pole, which is where her memories end."

"What?" France, England, and America jerked forward at the word "assassin." Hungary gasped, and covered her mouth with a hand. Sweden, who had been listening the whole time, gave his first indication of life by suddenly raising his head and giving Austria a _look_. The Baltics huddled together, trembling slightly. China gave a large start, and clutched at Japan, whose eyes widened.

"She also claims that, seeing as she's still alive, this assassin must not be tracking her anymore." Austria continued smoothly, as if nobody had given a reaction to his statement about the assassin. "She also claims that this assassin was after a whole group of people, which she was included in, and which was mostly made of those who had been 'in the wrong place at the wrong time.'"

"She was really worried about some friends of hers the first time she woke up…" Hungary put in, looking worried. "I think she said they were 'in really bad shape' or something. She seemed so scared, so worried, I thought it was just a dream of hers, brought on by her fever. Could she have been…?" The young woman trailed off, eyes wide and questioning.

Austria took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. Everyone was tense. He could see Hungary staring at him, silently asking for answers. England and France looked horrified, and China was squeezing Japan like the slightly-younger nation was a panda teddy bear. America had shed his usual dopey, self-assured air for one of shock. Near Russia, the Baltics were clutching each other in terror and practically vibrating. Sweden didn't seem to be showing any reaction, beyond staring intently at Austria with his eyes wider than normal. Only Russia seemed unphased, his childish smile affixed in place as always.

"So…" Austria allowed his voice to trail off as he contemplated his next words. "So…what will we do with her?"

"She must become one with Russia, obviously." Russia said immediately. Everyone except Sweden and the Baltics winced at that, knowing full well how it felt to be told that they should become one with Russia. As for the Baltics, they seemed terrified for Li, though they did their best to hide it when Russia clasped Latvia's shoulder and said, "Don't you agree?"

"No way!" America protested loudly. "She's gotta come with me! After all, I'm the hero! I can protect her just fine if that assassin guy shows up again! Plus," he grinned, "I can always use someone to play video games or hang out with. Iggy's always too busy."

"O-oy!" England protested, jumping to his feet to yell at the younger nation. "You'd be the worst person to keep an eye on her! She could disappear and you'd never notice! You have no sense of responsibility and you always procrastinate your work! Why the bloody hell should we let you take her?"

"Personally, I think she'd do best at my house." France interjected. "I would not mind looking after a young woman in the full bloom youth, after all!"

"You'd just molest her every chance you get!" England screamed, attacking his fellow. America began to laugh as China and Japan tried to stop the two from fighting, only to be pulled into the fray. Russia watched happily—but then, he did almost everything happily, from signing papers to drinking tea to beating someone senseless with his faucet pipe.

Austria and Germany watched the scene for a few moments, their anger quietly building. Hungary was staring, mood slightly lifted by the obvious yaoi possibilities of the four wrestling men before her. Sweden gave no indication that he even noticed, further fueling the anger of the two Germanic countries. The Baltics didn't seem to have anything to say, as they were huddled together so closely they almost appeared to be one mutated being, with six legs and three heads.

Eventually, Germany had had enough. "_STOP THIS AT ONCE!_" He shouted, stepping forward and easily separating the four men. China and Japan went willingly, but France and England had to be held apart at arm's length by the strong nation. "Now, can we please discuss this calmly?" The tall nation seethed.

"Oh…yeah." France hung his head. "I wasn't being very considerate there. My apologies, chère Allemagne."

"Hey! What're you doing, you bloody git, acting all mature suddenly!" England yelled, trying to launch himself at France. His attempt failed miserably, as Germany was between the two and much stronger than either of them.

"Perhaps we should consider what might come from hosting her first." Austria suggested, pushing his glasses up on his nose. "She has freely admitted to having been hunted. Anyone who takes her in might have to deal with the possibility of an attack. Furthermore, how are we to know that whatever she is hiding will not bring further hardships upon whoever takes her in? And if she doesn't like whoever takes her in, she will most likely run away."

"Oh, that's a simple enough problem to solve!" Russia exclaimed, brandishing his faucet pipe.

"No! You can't do that!" Austria, Germany, England, and China all screamed. Russia lowered the pipe, looking slightly disappointed.

"So who do you think should take her in, Austria?" France asked irritably, giving the other nation a despising look. It was no great secret that the two nations didn't get along under the best of circumstances. "Or do you still think we should toss her out?"

"No, I don't think that." Austria crossed his arms. "_I_ will take her in, for now. My house is quite big, and I could always use someone to clean. Furthermore, Germany is quite close by in case of trouble, and she has expressed no adversity towards either of us."

"You just want her to be your _maid?_" England glared at Austria, pushing Germany's restraining hand away from his forehead. France was also released, but Germany remained between the two, eyeing them for both for signs of possible trouble. "That's no bloody reason to take her in!"

"Well, she'll need a job in any case." Austria shrugged. "If she agrees to work as my maid, I will be giving her food, shelter, and money. Should she not wish to, you are free to offer her alternative options."

"What if she doesn't like any of our offers?" Hungary asked, biting her lip. "What if she doesn't want to stay with any of us?"

"Then we will have to allow her to leave…but we will keep her under surveillance." Austria answered calmly. "There are too many mysteries about this that I don't know the answer to—and I intend to find answers immediately."

* * *

**Li: Yeah. I'm kinda lying through my teeth about the Fire Nation.**

**Me: I'm currently writing the sixteenth chapter, where Li and Austria arrive at Austria's home. Since I've got thirty reviws already, I'd like to set you guys a challenge: if we can get to forty reviews by the end of this chapter, I will let you guys suggest things that happen/go wrong for Li at Austria's place. It can be anything: explosions, embarrassing moments, accidents that result in chaos and mayhem, anything! Just please remember, this story is rated T and I will not change it to M, so keep it T-rated. **


	8. Truth

**Li: Karen would like to dedicate this chapter to iTorchic, who made the top 15 in a screenplay contest thingy. Karen does not own Hetalia Axis Powers or its characters, nor does she own the Avatar universe. She does, however, own her own original characters, several of whom you will get to meet in this chapter. Please review. She's accepting anonymous now, so that's no excuse people! (Plus I get a cookie for each review you send in. Be nice to me, unlike Karen, and review!) There were only 6 reviews last chapter, too, so get your game on! REVIEW! FOR THE LOVE OF COOKIES REVIEW! *heavy breathing* I like cookies!**

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Li examined her hair in the mirror, trying to see if she had missed any spots of blood. It had cleaned nicely, and now hung around her face like seaweed. Seeing her hair coming only to her chin was starting to seem more natural to Li, something she wasn't sure she liked. Her hair had been long for years now—having it short again made her feel less like the Li she had been lately, and more like the Li she had been in her pre-teen years. Small strands were a bit longer, or a bit shorter, depending on how they had clumped. Austria was a pretty good hairdresser, really, to have gotten her hair so even despite all the blood clumping things up and creating knots and tangles.

But enough about her hair. Li looked around the room for what seemed the tenth time in as many minutes. It was fairly large, maybe twenty feet wide and thirty feet long from the view of someone standing at the door. A large bed was centered along the wall opposite the door, with hangings and at least two mattresses. Small tables were to either side, with no drawers, bare of any decoration or paint. The desk with the mirror, where Li sat, was positioned roughly one third of the distance from the door along the right-hand side of the room. Like the tables, it too lacked any decoration or paint, as did its matching chair. Opposite Li was a small table holding a plain tray and three glasses, as well as a mostly-empty pitcher of water.

The wallpaper had clearly once been a pattern of bright gold sunflowers on a background of white, but the gold had faded to a yellow-brown. Wood finishing along the bottom and top of the walls looked scuffed and slightly dirty, as if it hadn't been cleaned for years before now and the dirt had caked in. In fact, the door looked much the same, as did the wood of the furniture. To contrast this, the sheets on the bed looked new, if a bit bloody from Li's hair.

And the blood…where had that come from? There were so many questions, and Li wasn't sure she even knew what they were.

But…it was pretty obvious she had a small problem here. "Small" being used only for sarcastic purposes, as Li wasn't sure she could comprehend just how big all of this was. A whole different world, a group of people—nations—beings she knew nothing of, and no Ru…

Ru…

Li bit her lip to ward off any possibility of tears. Ru. Her greatest friend, her best ally, her only rock of stability in a world of politics and subterfuge that she had grown up in. Despite being four years older than Li, Ru had willingly given up her right to a life for Li's sake, vowing to protect the Fire Nation Princess with her life. For the first eight years of Li's life, it had been Ru who held all of the girl's secrets, her dreams and desires and hopes and wishes. Then, for the next four years, it had been Ru who comforted her friend after her elder, illegitimate half-brother's desertion of the Fire Nation and his sister. During that time, Ru had gone willingly with Li when the girl ran away in an attempt to find the only family she had that she knew cared for her. And when Li's little brother Kuzon had been born, Ru had been a willing helper, watching over Li as the Princess replaced her fixation on her elder brother for her younger one.

But now, now Ru wasn't here. Li didn't know where Ru was, other than that the girl either thought her friend was dead, or that she was trying desperately to find and save Li. The thought that Ru was, at least, trying to find her gave Li some measure of strength. Unless Ru thought her dead…

No, she couldn't! How could she? Li was here, and alive, and she knew that Ru wouldn't have allowed Li's body to leave her sight unless it was the only way to save her. So Ru had to know that Li was out there somewhere, alive, waiting for rescue. Which meant Ru was coming for her. All Li had to do was survive until then.

There, survival. It came back to that. Li didn't know if any of the nations would allow her to stay with them. She couldn't see any good reason for them to—she'd freely admitted she had been hunted, and didn't think her assurances would ease their minds. But she knew nobody else here. They were her best bet at surviving so far. And who knew if she would be able to fit in with this place? Everything seemed foreign to Li, from the design of the furniture to the materials used everywhere.

Li felt her eyelids droop, and realized she was tired. Not as tired as she had been the previous times she woke up, but she definitely needed sleep. After that, something to eat would be lovely. Her stomach was feeling hollow, and food was critical to keeping her strength up. Maybe once she'd had more rest, she could work on a place to stay.

Yes, sleep. It was getting more and more appealing by the second. Li tested her weight on her foot gingerly, winced, then sucked in a breath and managed to dash over to the bed before her leg failed on her completely. Seriously, that glass must have hit a nerve or something! How long was it going to take to heal? For the first time, Li felt herself regretting her near-constant access to Healers all her life. Her pain tolerance levels were average, about the same as the next person's, but shouldn't she be able to bear more than the usual amount of pain? After all, she wasn't an ordinary citizen.

After tossing the dirty sheets and pillows off the bed—she had just gotten clean, thank you, and had no desire to get blood on her person again—Li carefully relaxed, positioning her foot so it had the least chances of accidentally hitting something. Her eyes closed slowly, and she focused on her breathing. In, hold, out. In, hold, out. In, hold, out… In, hold…

_She was lying on the frozen ground of the Northern Water Tribe's city, in one of the small plazas that dotted the area. It was snowing, and Li could feel the white flakes accumulating on her skin, but for some reason they weren't melting like usual. No, that couldn't be right. Her body temperature was much higher than a normal human being's, one of the side products of being a Firebender. _

_Her eyes were open, and Li tried to blink as a snowflake landed on her eye. It stung, cold and biting, but she couldn't manage the movement required to get rid of it. Okay, what was going on? This was too freaky…_

_A low moan caught Li's attention, but she realized she couldn't turn her head either. Starting to panic, Li ordered her limbs to move, to help her sit up so she could scan the area for whatever had made that noise. Another sound, like an animal dying, rose, a wailing to the spirits for mercy. Wait…that voice sounded familiar…it sounded like…_

_"Ru!" A man's voice yelled. Li could hear someone running towards them, could feel the vibrations in the ground as feet pounded the packed ice and snow. What was going on? Why was Ru crying? Didn't she know Li was alive? She just couldn't move, was all…_

_"Oh no!" A woman's horrified voice cried, and four people entered Li's line of sight. One was a woman, young, probably beautiful, with long light brown hair done up elaborately in a traditional Water Tribe style. The other three were men: two of them, one with medium brown hair and another with hair closer to the woman's shade of bronze, ran to Li and knelt beside her, closely followed by the woman. As for the fourth, a man with darker brown hair, he disappeared from Li's line of sight, heading for the sound of Ru's sobbing._

_"Is she okay? Is she gonna live?" The darker-haired man kneeling beside asked anxiously, taking one of her hands. His eyes widened in surprise. "She—she's cold! Ming, she's cold! That, that's not a bad sign, is it?"_

_"L-let me try healing her first!" Ming cried, Bending some water from the nearby snow. She brought the liquid into a sort of ball, which she spread across Li's neck. It felt icy, but good—like there was some sort of fire in Li's throat that the water was quenching. In fact…her neck…hadn't it been…?_

_"Li, please be okay. Please." The first man begged, squeezing her hand so hard it hurt. Li tried to make some sound of protest, but her throat refused to work. Her throat…_

_"Xing, Huo." Ming said through gritted teeth, staring intently at Li. "Hong and Liandao are hurt too. Why don't you both get to them first? I'll tend to them after Li." Both men at Li's side paused, then got up and dashed out of Li's line of sight. Ming sat there for a few more moments, her healing water at work on Li's neck, before withdrawing the water. Figuring she must be healed by now, Li tried to sit up again, only to find herself unable to still._

_Ming sat back, staring at Li. A small whimper escaped her lips, and she shakily reached a hand to feel Li's throat. "The damage is healed…" came her whisper. "Please Li…please let it have been enough…please let me have been on time…" Fingers dug into Li's throat, and jabbed the spot where Li's pulse should be. There was a pause, then another jab, deeper this time, more painful. _

_"Li…" Ming's voice sounded shredded, as if raw pain had destroyed her vocal chords. "Oh Li…I'm sorry…I'm so…" Her voice trailed off as sobs began to shake her form. "Li…what will we do? What will the Fire Nation do? How are we supposed to win this without you?"_

_What? Win this without her? Li was surprised to hear that. Out of their entire group, she was the replaceable one, the one they didn't really need. Everyone else had some special talent, some useful connection or skill, that made them invaluable, but Li wasn't really much of anything. Just the tagalong Princess, whose cousin could just as easily become the new Fire Lord as she could._

_"Ming, Liandao is okay! She got knocked out, but she's starting to come around! There aren't any signs of a concussion!" Xing's voice—the boy with hair like Ming's—rang out. "You should probably check her, though, just to be safe, as soon as Li…" Like Ming, his voice trailed off. _

_"Hong's losing a lot of blood!" The other man, Huo, shouted urgently. "Quick, Ming! If Li's gonna be okay, you have to heal him!" After a moment, he seemed to realize that Ming wasn't moving. "Ming…Ming, what's wrong?"_

_"Li…" Ming's voice cracked, and she brought it back under control. "Li…she's…dead."_

_What?_

_No!_

_She wasn't…!_

_Was she…?_

_Li's mind raced, trying to digest this information. Ming was a Healer—not just any Healer, she was THE Healer, the greatest Waterbender Healer in the entire world. Her skills were legendary, on par with stories of Katara of the Southern Water Tribe or Toph Bei Fong, both widely recognized as some of the greatest Bending prodigies of all time. And…and…Li would have gulped if she had any control over her body…if Ming said Li was dead, then…she was dead._

_Li was dead._

_But wait! What about…yes, what about the nation-people? Russia? Had that been a dream? It felt so real…as if to prove it had been real, Li's foot throbbed, exactly where it had been hurting back in Russia, or wherever she'd been. So…she hadn't been injured in her foot during the fight, definitely not, she could feel the thick Water Tribe boots still. _

_Ru's sobbing turned into a scream, and something hit Li's side. It was Ru, clutching her friend about the waist, now hauling her upright. Li could see Liandao, looking dazed and confused, just waking in Xing's arms. A breeze blew Xing's hair to the side, momentarily exposing his Airbender tattoos. A bit beyond them, Hong was still pinned to the wall, looking like he was already halfway unconscious. Hong's brother Huo stood halfway between Hong and Liando, looking like his world had just been shattered. Actually, all of them looked like that._

_Then Huo suddenly ran forward, and crouched next to Li and Ru. "She's not dead!" He exclaimed, staring directly into Li's eyes. Ru abruptly stopped her crying, and stiffened._

_"Huo, I can't find a pulse. Yeah, her chi's flowing, but…" Ming protested, trailing off as the older man held up a hand to silence her._

_"I'm the Avatar, remember?" Huo grinned recklessly, still staring at Li. "I can see…well, sort of see…well, she's not dead. Her soul's still attached to her body. She's just lost a lot of blood, which is why you can't find a pulse. We need to get her somewhere but…I'm not sure…I don't know…" He stopped, and cocked his head, as if listening to someone. "The oasis. The Spirit Oasis. We gotta take her there."_

_"Huo, I don't see how—!" Ming began to protest, but Ru was already lifting Li, turning towards the quickest route to the oasis. _

_"I can hear a spirit telling me what to do." Huo paused to assure Ming. "But, anyways! You wait here, heal my brother and Liandao. We'll take her to the Spirit Oasis. Maybe we can figure out what's going on!"_

_"But-!" Whatever Ming was trying to say, it was lost to Li as Ru dashed through the Northern Water Tribe, paying little attention to those she passed in her mission to get Li to the Spirit Oasis safely and quickly. Meiko's attack had been a surprise: Li didn't think anyone knew the assassin had been in the great city the Northern Water Tribe inhabited, and they certainly wouldn't have thought she could defeat some of the strongest Benders in the world. But Ru was running through the streets, leaping the canals, holding a lifeless Li in her arms. Rumors would start to spread, facts would be twisted and perverted, events forgotten or added…_

_But this would not be good for their morale. While the Earth Kingdom had mostly fallen to the new Tóngyī ShÌjiè regime, the Water Tribes were resisting._

_Ru paused, and opened the door in the back of the Water Temple. She took a moment to wrestle herself and Li through, then practically flew over one of the bridges to stand beneath the Spirit Gate before the small tropic pool. Huo appeared a second later, panting slightly._

_"What now?" Ru demanded, voice harsh. Li's head lolled back, and her eyes wound up staring directly at Huo. The Avatar was taking deep breaths, eyes partially closed, a look on his face like he was struggling to hear something._

_"I…I'm not quite…I can't…" Huo struggled to speak, then fell silent for a moment. His head tilted to one side—towards the pool—and his brow furrowed. Then his eyes flew wide open, and his head shot up. "The water! Put her in the water!"_

_Ru wasted to time in complying. She waded into the water, and gently lowered Li's limp body down. It was warm, pleasantly so, and more than welcome after the biting cold of the North Pole. Her heavy, Water Tribe blue furs quickly soaked up the water, weighing Li down. _

_Now Li was underwater, staring up at the sky. She saw movement from the corner of her eye—of course, she couldn't turn her head like she wanted to see what it was, but there were only two things in this pond that moved. Two koi fish, one black with a white spot on its head, one white with a black spot on its forehead, forever circling each other in a manner similar to the yin-yang symbol. In the few times Li had come here, she had never bothered to wonder what the fish were, but now…had she ever seen them eat? Do anything normal koi fish did?_

_The water covering her face blurred everything beyond the surface, making it hard to see Ru and Huo. Light danced in fanciful patterns overhead, swirling into shapes eerily reminiscent to writing. Fins flashed by her face, and Li realized the koi fish were circling around her head. _

_I am so sorry.__ The voice whispered, and if Li could have moved, she would have jerked in surprise. __I am so sorry. I am so sorry. I am so sorry._

What? Who are you? _Li thought furiously, trying to move her mouth and speak._ Am…am I dead?

_No, my child.__ Silver-blue light blossomed from the fish, and Li would have gasped as a woman came into view, hovering above the surface of the pool. She had white hair, but the tanned skin of a Water Tribe woman. Her clothing was all in white and a blue so pale it could have been white, cut in a fashion that was clearly Water Tribe, but also something else._

What are you?_ Li mentally screamed. _What's going on? You…are you a spirit?

_Yes. I am Yue, the moon spirit.__ Came the woman's reply. __And I am so sorry, but you cannot stay here. It is too dangerous for you._

Too dangerous? What?_ Li didn't know if the spirit was reading her thoughts, or something like that, but she hoped the woman was at least hearing the confusion Li couldn't quite voice. _

_It is very complicated…__ Yue sounded hesitant. __I do not know how to say it. But you have almost died, and your body still needs to be Healed. However, your injuries cannot be Healed by simple Waterbending. My powers can aid in the process, but it will take time. A month at most. Even though I am a spirit, I cannot simply heal you fully with a wave. There are rules to be followed, and I am not strong enough to circumvent them._

A month?_ Li mentally screamed. _I can't be away that long! What is going ON here?

_The bonds between your body and soul are being stretched to the breaking point.__ Yue said simply. __And other spirits are already involved. Your soul has been cast away from your body so it will not fade into death during the Healing, and you only experience this now as your soul wanders in sleep from another world. I can help the Avatar and your spirit-child friend to locate your soul, but it is well hidden, even from me, while I have your body to trace the link._

I have no idea what you just said, but hurry up and fix me!_ Li shouted. _Would it help if I tell you what I remember?

_I'm afraid not.__ Yue sighed. __Do not worry. Now, I shall begin the Healing process, but your soul will return to wherever it has been sent. Fear not: we are searching for you. We will come for you. You will know when we have arrived. Now sleep, Princess…_

_Light began to seep into Li's body, into her very being, it felt. Suddenly drowsy, Li felt her body doing one thing she wanted it to do…her eyes closed…_

"Li?" Hungary's voice drifted to the girl, and she struggled to open her eyes. "Li, if you're all awake, we'd like to talk to you."

"Hnn?" Li groaned blearily, still half-convinced that she was underwater. She blinked several times while propping herself up on one arm, and glanced around at the room. A dozen or so of the nation-people were standing around the room, looking at her. Most of them, Li recognized: Hungary, Austria, Germany, Russia, Lithuania and his two friends Estonia and Latvia (although Li wasn't sure which was which), the thick-eyebrowed England, and France—who Li wasn't sure she could trust, considering how she had woken up last time. Two men who looked more like the sort of people Li usually met in the Four Nations were also present, as well as a tall man who stood intimidatingly silent against one wall and a cheerful-looking young man with a distinctive jacket and glasses.

"Li, we've been discussing things." Hungary said softly. "And…well, we don't think you really want to stay in Russia's house."

"Uhh…well, not really, no." Li spoke softly, eyeing the creepy tall man. He didn't look like he'd heard her, but Li could have sworn the air around him colored slightly purple. "Did you have a solution in mind? Please tell me you have a solution in mind…"

"Austria has offered to give you a job as a maid at his house." Hungary explained, speaking normally now. "If you refuse, though, it's fine."

A job? As a…maid? Well, Li knew how to clean, at least: Ru had insisted she know how, despite having an all-female staff of personal servants to look after her every whim. But Li was a Princess of the Fire Nation, and they were offering to make her a servant. A _servant_. If her parents knew that she was being offered a job _as a servant_…Taking a job so beneath her would be regarded as a serious loss of honor in the Fire Nation, going from Princess to maid…

Well, these people didn't exactly know about the Princess part. And a job meant the possibility of money. Money was good for surviving. Would she get any better offers? All she had to do was wait for Ru and Huo and Yue to come and get her. It wouldn't take too long. Not with Ru, who had never allowed Li to be more than two city blocks from her at a time before now.

"Okay." Li finally shrugged, rolling her shoulders. "Why not?"

Several of the nations seemed disappointed—mostly France and the man in the jacket—while others seemed relieved. Austria simply nodded, then turned and walked out of the room.

It would seem Li was now a servant.

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**Me: Well, Li, it seems you're now a maid! :D**

**Li: You. YOU. Stop screwing with my life!**

**Me: I did not screw with your life. I just own it! :D Blame the story for screwing with your life!**

**Li: Poor Ru...I never thought she would feel so strongly about my death...I thought she'd maybe beat herself up over failing in her duty, but...**

**Me: There's a lot you never thought about Ru, my dance monkey.**

**Li: So, what are they doing now?**

**Me: Allow me to tell you (and the readers!). It will play into later chapters.**

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The light from the oasis died down, and Ru and Huo stared at the waters. There lay Li, their friend, pale and cold. Above the waters, the form of a young woman still hovered. Her head was bowed, eyes shut lightly, as if she were asleep. But then they opened, and two ocean-blue eyes turned to the pair of anxiously-waiting Benders.

I am Yue, spirit of the moon. She spoke simply, and neither Ru nor Huo dared to doubt her. You are worried for your friend, I know. She is healing."

"What's going on?" Ru demanded, stepping forward. "Answer me, spirit! Will Li live?"

Yes. She shall live. Yue replied.

"Then how long until she wakes up?" Ru challenged.

She will need a month. To be completely accurate, she will need one full turning of the moon. Yue hesitated, then continued. In order to heal her, I have had to separate her soul from her body. And...there is one small problem.

"Problem?" Ru's voice was faint. She felt a roaring start again in her ears. Waking up to see Li dead had nearly killed her then and there. Huo's words that she was still alive had brought light back into Ru's life. Because Li, protecting Li, that was Ru's life. Without Li, she...she...

Her soul cannot be separated from her body for more than a year, or the bond that keeps them connected will fade, decay, and snap entirely. Yue explained. And...I sent her soul into a safe place, a place where it could slumber peacefully until the healing process is done and it can return to her body without the death her body, which is so injured it cannot long support life, would spiral into. But...it isn't there anymore.

"Are you saying," Ru took a deep breath before continuing, "that you...LOST...Li's soul?" Yue's face gave her all the answer she needed. "AND YOU CALL YOURSELF THE MOON SPIRIT?"

"Ru! Calm down!" Huo scolded, putting a hand on the Firebender's shoulder. "Don't you remember the story Jia's brother told us? Near the end of the War, a hundred and fifty years ago, the Princess of the Northern Water Tribe sacrificed herself to save the moon spirit. Don't you get it? She's that princess! She's Yue, who became the moon!"

"Oh, so she's just young? That's all?" Ru turned her anger on the Avatar. "She lost Li's soul! She LOST it! I might have known, never trust the spirits to help, they never do! And I'd like to know how you intend to let me FIX this little mess of yours! Or can the oh-so-powerful moon spirit not even do _that?_"

You can enter the Spirit World to help me look for her. Yue spoke again. Drink the water from the Oasis, to aid me in bringing you to the Spirit World. We can search for her soul together. Another spirit has interfered, and there will be consequences when we discover who.

For a moment, the Avatar and Ru stared at each other, silently debating what to do. Then they went and knelt at the edge of the Oasis.

"If this doesn't work…" Ru growled, giving the moon spirit a threatening look. "Mark my words, I _will _finish what Admiral Zhao failed to do a hundred and fifty years ago. And there will be no one to take your place if I do." Yue bowed her head in acceptance of Ru's words, then Bended two small orbs of water up from the pool, each barely enough for a mouthful.

Drink. She whispered, the balls moving to the air just before Ru and Huo's mouths. So they drank.

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**Me: There you have it!**

**Li: Uhh...what in the world is Huo talking about...? O.o**

**Me: Hehe. You remember that inside joke...?**

**Li: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!**

**;) Inside joke might be explained, might not be. You'll have to wait and see. Congrats again, iTorchic!**


	9. Meeting

**Me: Well, it's been two months since I first posted this story. I am most pleased at its reception. Also, I would like to give the disclaimer myself this time; I do not own Hetalia Axis Powers or the Avatar world, but I do own Li and my other original characters jointly with the Fair One. Also, please review and tell me: should I post a series of oneshots about the personifications of the Four Nations? I have three of them so far, but I'd like to know if you guys wanna read them before doing anything.**

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The day after Li's decision to work for Austria, the world meeting resumed. Everyone was sitting around the table in a conference room on the ground floor of Russia's house, rather than the hotel they had originally planned on having the meeting. Nobody doubted the reason for the change: Li was sitting in a chair near the door, watching everything with interest.

Prussia eyed the girl with interest as he sat next to his younger brother. "So West," he whispered, leaning over to his brother, "that's the mystery girl from two days ago? The one Russia brought in?"

"Yes, bruder." Germany sighed, ordering his notes. "And why are you even here? I told you last time, you're not even an official country anymore, not since the unification of Germany. The only reason your presence is tolerated is because, technically, you are only here to assist me."

"Why'd Russia insist she attend?" Prussia continued, as if Germany hadn't spoken a word. "There's no good reason for her to be here. She's not a nation. She's not a maid…but she'd look pretty good in one of the dresses, I'd bet—"

"Bruder!" Germany hissed, giving the albino a sharp look. Prussia just shrugged and grinned lazily, still staring fixedly at Li. She was taking in the room and everyone in it with fascination, finding something new to occupy her attention every ten seconds. As if she felt eyes on her, Li's gaze drifted to Prussia. He waved, a cocky look spreading over his face. Li looked surprised, and a blush spread across her face before she hastily looked away. Her reaction seemed to satisfy Prussia, and the ex-nation leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms behind his head.

"All right, is everyone ready to start?" Russia stood. As the host nation, it was his duty to begin the meeting. He proceeded through the standard formalities, then sat down after detailing the tentative schedule for the day. "The first topic is the situation in the Middle East. Now, would anyone else like to speak?"

"I know what to do!" America held up a hand proudly, then stood without being recognized. "We should all have a huge party to make everybody there feel better! Nobody's allowed to disagree with me, by the way."

"You git! That's the dumbest idea I've heard since you wanted to make a giant superhero to shield the planet from global warming!" England yelled, jumping out of his seat. "What the bloody hell goes _on_ in that head of yours?"

"I agree with America-san…" Japan voiced.

"Aiyah! I disagree, aru!" China leapt up, and stood on the table. "America! Think of this seriously, aru! A party won't do anything to stop the fighting, aru!"

"Hey! What do you know?" America defended his plan. "Do you have a better idea?"

"Maybe we should ask the Middle East countries…" Canada tried to speak, but all that he received were a few blank looks. Several of the people around him wondered where that mysterious voice had come from, and why there was an empty seat in the middle of the meeting.

"If you can't come up with anything realistic, why are you even talking, aru!" China berated America. "Aiyah! You're too immature, aru! You shouldn't even be here, aru! Thanks to you, we're stuck in this whole situation in the first place, aru!"

"Whaaaat? No way! I'm the HERO! I make things better!" America protested, glaring at China. "If you don't have a better idea, don't bother talking!"

"You're saying _I_ shouldn't be talking?" China screamed, lunging for his fellow country. A wok appeared in his hand—or had it been there all along, unnoticed? America dodged the attack, and tackled China around the midsection. The two sprawled on the floor, and everyone started yelling, either at them to stop, or at other people. Sides began to form, and the meeting was spiraling out of control.

"EVERYBODY QUIET!" Germany roared. Most of the nations immediately calmed down, sitting back in their seats with relieved or exasperated or angry looks on their face. The only ones who didn't seem to hear him were America and China, who had managed to right themselves somewhat and were still yelling at each other. "You two! Stop this at once!" Germany's order went unnoticed.

Li was thoroughly confused by now. She had been told this was a meeting to discuss global problems. When Lithuania had told her about it that morning, she had immediately requested to be allowed to attend. Not only would it give her a good idea about the state of affairs here, but it would also give Li a chance to see what these people really did. Her current impression was…well…

"Are they taking this seriously?" She muttered to herself, staring at America and China. They were still on the ground, shouting at each other about the state of their economies and the situation in this "Middle East"—wherever that was, but it sounded like things were going bad—and the like. Everyone else looked ready to start yelling again at a moment's notice.

This wasn't what she had expected for a world meeting. Li had attended political events before, on the insistence of her father, and they had all been serious affairs. In stark contrast, this meeting had begun with a semi-casual air, and then devolved into chaos with China's attack on America. Was this what every meeting of the nations was like? If so, Li had to admit, she feared for this world…

Finally, it got to be too much. Germany's yelling wasn't doing anything for the two, and their continuing argument looked to be encouraging some of the more rebellious-looking nations. Something had to be done before this could get out of control…and Li had dealt with similar incidents before amongst her group of friends.

"AAIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Li let loose an ear-splitting scream.

America and China fell silent, and everyone turned wide-eyed to look at Li. The young woman blushed, realizing she had drawn herself into the center of things with her attempt to make the two stop arguing. With all the eyes in the room on her, she felt much less confident than she had before. Her throat choked up on her, and she struggled to think of something to say, but nothing came to mind.

"Well…thank you for that." Germany said grudgingly. Salvation! "Um, since we seem to need a break, I move we take a short break so that certain nations," and he glared at America and China, "may gather their control, and stop acting like children."

"Yeah…I was being immature, wasn't I…" America admitted, hanging his head. China voiced similar apologies, and the two were quickly pulled to opposite ends of the room by England and Japan respectively to be chewed out. Most everyone turned their attention away from Li…_most_ everyone.

"You have…very strong lungs." Germany told Li, suddenly standing beside her (to her point of view at least, more likely he just walked over while she wasn't paying attention). Li jumped, then peered up at him timidly. It wasn't a show, much as she wished it was: her confidence seemed limited to the times she thought nobody else was watching, or when she knew the group she was working with and knew exactly what she had to do next. Improvisation…wasn't one of her strong suits.

"I've done a lot of screaming lately." Li replied softly, unable to help it as one corner of her mouth curled up into a smile. "Mostly because I keep getting into stupid situations and needing rescue. And practice makes perfect, so I've been getting better pretty fast."

"I see." Germany was silent for a moment, staring down at Li intently. Li looked away, uncomfortable with a man she didn't know very well looking at her. The memory of him undoing her coat, innocent as his true intentions had been, sprang into Li's mind. She felt herself blushing again, then realized she hadn't done something she had intended to do since her awakening.

"Umm…I don't think…" Li swallowed, trying to gather up enough courage to speak. "I…I still have to apologize for attacking you the first time I woke up…" Her voice trailed off with her thoughts. This was really, really awkward, and Li wasn't very good with awkward. "I…I…I am sorry." She swallowed, having finally gotten the words out. With no better idea, she looked down at the floor.

"Oh, it is understandable." Germany began to blush as he, too, remembered the reason for her attack. "I…uh…suppose you did wake up to a very…difficult to explain situation." He looked away as his face heated up, and the two stayed that way for a tense moment before they both turned to look at each other and opened their mouths to speak at the same time.

"I'm very sorry—" Li began, overlapping Germany's, "I should be the one—" almost perfectly. They both stopped abruptly, and then Li giggled slightly at the awkwardness and clamped a hand over her mouth, motioning for the nation to go first.

"I…should be the one apologizing. Because of me, you woke up to something that spurred you to attack." The blond man said carefully, face burning. "So…please forgive me for causing such a situation to occur."

"Oh…um, actually, I probably would have attacked someone anyways." Li admitted. "M-my first reaction to strange people grouping around me has been a bit…violent, of late." Yes, violent. Just a little. There was no story there, ohhh no, of course not. Especially nothing that involved a certain psychotic bitch known as Meiko, and her lovely little group of friends. Incidentally, everyone in that group wanted Li dead just as much as Meiko.

"…Ah." Germany looked at her intensely, as if he was trying to read something from her. It sort of reminded Li of how Si, her Ru's boyfriend (no matter how much the socially-awkward older girl tried to deny it) sometimes studied Li. Since Si Wang was an Airbending Master whom Li had no small fear of, Germany's use of such a similar face made the young woman want to cringe away. In fact, pretty much the only thing that kept Li from responding to Germany like she did to Si (running and hiding behind Ru, or the nearest tall person) was, of all things, his hair.

Yes, his hair. It was one of the dumbest things, really, but Li was finding the yellow hair that so many of these nation-people had to be strangely fascinating. Back at home—back in her own world—the lightest hair she had ever seen was her cousin Kai's, a brown so light the sun made it gleam bronze. Other than Xing, an Airbending monk who had previously had his head shaved to display his tattoos, or Ming, the Water Tribe Princess and greatest Healer in the world, nobody else had such light-colored hair. Everyone else had brown hair, in its varying shades, or black hair, like Ru. Yellow hair…it was just bizarre. Li was slowly getting used to it, but she still wondered if it might just be colored. Not that she would ask.

Germany finally realized that Li was staring at his hair, lost in thought. He blinked, surprised that she would find it so interesting. Conscientious, he ran a hand back through his hair, hoping it hadn't began to frizz due to the humidity or anything. But no, it was perfectly normal, same as always.

"Err…_Fraulein_…" Germany hesitated, unsure of what to say. Li blinked, and snapped out of her reverie quickly. She tore her eyes from Germany's hair and looked him in the face—no, that was a mistake. Her blush, which had died down mostly while she was staring at Germany's hair, started up again full-force as she met his blue eyes. Ah, blue eyes: something Li had only seen in members of the Water Tribe before, or the Avatar (whose mother was from the Water Tribe, despite having married an Earth Kingdom general in a rare display of cross-nation marriage). When paired with yellow hair, they seemed brighter somehow…more…

She was spacing again. Li gave herself a mental slap, and decided to stare at Germany's forehead. It was a trick she had learned back home, at boring diplomatic events, when there was no need to really listen to someone but she had to do so anyways. People almost never realized she was staring at their forehead, and when they did, she would quickly drop her gaze to their earlobes. That was enough to convince most diplomats that she was either crazy, or messing with them. Most of them decided on crazy, interestingly enough. Her reign as Fire Lord promised to be an interesting time…if it came at all.

"Uhh…yes?" Li ventured, trying to remember if Germany had said anything. She didn't think so…but then, she could turn deaf when spacing out. Why did his hair have to be so distracting…? Resisting the urge to stare at his earlobe, Li tried a small smile. It probably came out as more of a painful wince. Lovely.

"Ah…it's nothing." Germany shook his head. "But, since we are on break, and you are injured, would you like anything to drink?"

"Hm? Well, tea would be lovely, but I can get it myself." Li gave a proper grin as she stuck out her foot. "See?" The bandages had been removed, and her foot looked the same as it had before the shard of glass had encountered it. In fact, if you looked closely, her scars seemed to be lighter as well… "It just healed up overnight. Lithuania couldn't make heads or tails of it. I told him it was the universe finally making up for all the stuff I've been through lately, but he just laughed."

"But…Austria said it was bleeding profusely…" Germany whispered, bending down to examine Li's bare foot. Without thinking, he took it in his hands and ran a finger over the spot where the wound had been. Li giggled at the feeling of his finger tracing her skin—she was ticklish!—and couldn't help giving a little kick to make him stop. "Oh…oh, I'm sorry…"

"It's not a problem, but I'm really ticklish." Li rubbed her foot to get rid of the lingering feeling Germany's finger had left. "Anyways, yeah, my foot healed up. So I can get something for myself, don't worry about it. Where's the tea?"

"Oh…that table over there should have refreshments." Germany pointed to a long table on the opposite side of the room, piled with small snack foods and various drinks. "You can probably find some tea there."

"Thank you. I'll be right back." Li gave a polite smile to Germany while rising, then quickly walked towards the table. She tried not to make it look like a retreat…but it was. The tall, yellow-haired man was intimidating and somewhat frightening, especially since Li knew Ru wasn't around to kill anybody who messed with Li. Well, not that Ru always killed people…usually she would just beat them to the point of death, then leave them for the proper authorities. Still, without the constant presence of Ru to assure Li that all would be fine, she was finding herself more easily scared than usual.

The table had several plates of strange-looking food that Li decided would be best to avoid. That morning, when she had woken up, she had finally remembered to tell someone she was hungry. Lithuania had brought her an odd dish that he said was an egg. Li highly doubted it was an egg: eggs were round and hard, and only tasted good when you used them to make bread or pastries or some such dish. Even then, they weren't her favorite dish. These eggs had been flat, and white, with a weird, round yellow center. Apparently, that was a normal way of serving eggs here. To Li, it just seemed bizarre.

"Umm…is there any jasmine tea?" Li asked a nation who was filling a cup with hot water. She thought it was either Japan or South Korea, but wasn't entirely sure which one—they looked a lot alike to her, and hadn't been as rude as China during the meeting. But she didn't need to apologize to him, Li was fairly certain.

"Eh? Of course there is, da-ze! Jasmine originated in me!" The nation said cheerfully, and handed Li a packet of something in paper wrapping. Li stared at it in confusion before he took a cup, filled it with water, and took the packet form her, opening it take out a small bag. He dunked it in the water, and began to bob it up and down by a string attached to one end.

"Umm…what are you doing?" Li asked, frowning.

"Making tea." The nation that was either Japan or South Korea looked up at Li with a huge grin on his face "They don't have good tea here, so we have to use teabags. Which originated in me." He gave Li a dazzling grin that somehow didn't make her feel better, and handed over the cup with the bag still inside. "Here, daze. Tell me what you think. Too much, not enough, just right?" Li accepted the cup delicately, and took a careful sip. She made a face—it barely tasted like tea, much less jasmine tea—but it was probably the best she could expect to get here.

"It's all right. Thank you." She nodded her head, and took another sip of the awful tea—hiding her look of disgust by turning her head—before looking around. Germany had been occupied by Italy, and they seemed to be having a rather…animated conversation. Italy was speaking loudly about some subject, while Germany was listening with a half-exasperated look on his face.

Well…she did have more people to apologize to. It had actually been one of the reasons she had requested to be allowed to attend. When she had attempted to apologize to Russia earlier, he had only smiled while his aura manifested around him, and asked if she would like to become one with Russia. That ambivalent statement had assured Li of two things: one, that she had indeed made the right decision in choosing to accept Austria's offer of a job, and two, that Russia was to be avoided at all costs. She had yet to apologize to the others she had attacked, though. America and England were amongst the group, as was a country called Sweden and one other…Japan or South Korea, one of the two. Not the one currently standing next to Li, but the other, she was sure. Hopefully.

America seemed to be talking with England nearby—well, getting chewed out might be a more accurate term. He was eating some strange food that consisted of a slice of meat and some vegetables squashed between two pieces of bread. Odd-colored sauces could be seen dripping a bit from underneath the bread. England, in contrast, was holding a cup of something and paused every few minutes to take a drink. The two nations had similar golden shades of hair, darker than Germany's by a shade or two, but America's was somewhat longer than England's, and one strand stuck up in defiance of gravity. It also seemed that America was taller than England.

Li walked over to stand next to them, and waited to be noticed. America didn't seem to care about anything other than his food, and England was busy scolding the other nation. After five minutes, Li decided to interrupt—something she didn't do often.

"Um, excuse me?" She reached out and put a hand on England's outstretched arm. "May I speak to you both for a moment?" England gave a start as Li, as far as he could tell, appeared out of thin air. America looked at her in surprise for a second before a beaming smile lit up his face.

"Sure thing! There's always time to speak to the hero!" He grinned, and took another bite of his food. "Whatcha want?"

"I still have to apologize for attacking you both upon my first awakening." She explained. "And then later, England, when I threw you into that…person. I'm very sorry, and I will try not to let it happen again." Li clasped her hands around her cup and leaned forward in a very slight bow. "So…I must ask for your forgiveness."

"Huh? Oh, uh, sure thing." England blushed, and took a drink of his beverage. It looked a lot like the tea Li had—smelled just as bad, too. "Think nothing of it. I, well, I figured that it would be wrong to fight a girl, so I didn't do anything, but trust me, if you'd been a man, you wouldn't have stood a chance." Li felt her left eyelid twitch at the "wrong to fight a girl" part, but decided it was just a part of his culture and tried to let it slide.

"Thank you." She smiled at the thick-eyebrowed nation, resisting the urge to start an argument over how women could fight. The most powerful fighter she knew was a woman, after all! And the only reason Ru had been injured during the fight with Meiko was because of Li's own incompetence. "And you, America? Can I beg your forgiveness?"

"Not a problem! You caught me off-guard, is all!" America waved a hand. "The hero always forgives people!"

"Then I guess you're a hero." Li felt a more genuine smile tug at her lips as she gave a slightly deeper bow to the two. America looked ecstatic at her words, and England groaned.

"Don't encourage him…" England sighed. Li frowned for a moment in confusion, then understood when America hugged her tightly, squashing her so hard she couldn't breathe for a moment. Her cup of tea spilled over the front of her clothing—woman's clothing this time, a shirt and long skirt Hungary had given her. The liquid immediately began to steam out of existence, thanks to Li's heightened body temperature as a Firebender, but it would definitely leave a permanent stain.

The stain wasn't the first thing on Li's mind, however. She had been, for most of her life, accustomed to having a bubble of space around her that only a few were allowed to enter. After the first few weeks, her friends had accepted that fact as simply being a part of her, and allowed her to remain at a safe distance from everyone else unless she chose to stay closer. Recent…events at her home had led an increase in Li's aversion to being touched. A joke amongst her friends was that touching her without prior permission would result in immediate death, as she had a tendency to be violent towards the Avatar whenever he goofed off or shirked his duties.

And now America was hugging her.

Li was motionless for a second out of pure shock, barely feeling the tea dripping down her front. Some of it had gotten onto America's suit as well (at least Li thought it was his people's version of a suit, since everyone here seemed to be wearing some variation of one), but he didn't seem to pay it any attention. Instead, he simply squeezed Li like he was trying to crush her.

Then it registered with that little part of Li's brain that always took over when she attacked that a man was holding her crushingly close. Panic took over, and Li went back to the time she had been captured by the Tóngyī ShÌjiè—how her feet had been mutilated, how Monk Gēge (the Tóngyī ShÌjiè's leader) had used his strange power to toy with her mind, twisting her emotions in ways that caused her physical pain as her mind tried to tear itself apart. His power, though still growing, was limited, and he had needed to hold her close initially to begin the process of manipulating her chakras. Part of Li returned to those moments, tensed remembering what would come next, the pain that would wrack her body, the emotional agonies—and she retaliated like she couldn't then.

One foot stomped down on America's, and he yelped in surprise. His grip on Li loosened, and she used the opportunity to escape his grasp. Two quick jabs to the vague areas of pressure points in his stomach, and he started to double over in pain, but Li didn't give him that chance. She grabbed him by his collar with her right hand, and threw him in the direction that her hyper-vigilant mind found most empty: towards a window. He crashed into it, and the force caused the glass to shatter. America landed outside in the snow, a few yards beyond the shards of glass from the window.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at Li, whose mind had finally come together. She froze, trying to deny she had just done what she had just done. Her eyes widened in fear as she realized it had made her the center of attention, and she wanted nothing more than to sink into the floor and disappear. Expressions ranged from shocked to scared to intrigued—guess who. It occurred to Li that she should probably say something, but her throat had constricted in on itself and wasn't letting any words get past. Not that Li would be able to say anything smart, or funny, or explanatory—her mind had gone as blank as a piece of paper.

Then suddenly, she wasn't in the meeting room anymore, she was in the hallway outside, arms clutched protectively around her as she ran for her room. She was there in what seemed like both a second and a century to her panic-warped sense of time, shutting the door behind her, locking it like Lithuania had showed her earlier, then collapsing back against a wall. Memories resurfaced—memories of her time as a captive. Three days had seemed like forever—forever had seemed like Hell.

Li felt wetness spring up in her eyes, and the maelstrom of misery within her was channeled into a much-used route: rage. She didn't _cry_—she was _too_ _strong_ to _cry! _How could she be succumbing to such weakness here, in a strange land with strange people that she might have just alienated? What was _wrong_ with her? Could she do _anything_ right? Always, she was the one who screwed up, who did something stupid that everyone else paid for. Conveniently, Li forgot the times she had saved her friends, corrected her mistakes or the mistakes of others.

Her knees drew up, soon followed by her arms, and Li curled into a fetal position. She held the tears back, fighting them as valiantly as she fought her enemies, gritting her teeth and biting her lip so hard it began to bleed. "Ru…" The name came out as a moan, low and pained. "Ru…where are you…"

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**. Oh, the angst...hopefully it'll get better next chapter...maaaaybe...**


	10. Withdrawn

**I do not own Hetalia: Axis Powers or the Avatar 'verse.**

**Next week, I will be in El Paso, building homes for the poor. I'm not sure if I'll have Internet or not, so I'm going to post Chapter 11 on Friday, before I leave, just in case. If I should find myself with Internet down there, I'll post on Wednesday, as scheduled. If not, you'll get Chapter 12 on the Monday after I get back, then Chapter 13 that Wednesday. Things are also going to get interesting in the next few chapters, I promise...and you'll get a glimpse of a character you wouldn't expect to meet. Ever.**

**Li: Who?**

**Me: Like I'm telling :D**

**Li: Evil woman...**

**Me: I know! Now back to the story! If I remember correctly, you just threw America out a window.**

**Li: *depression* Yeeeees...**

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After Li threw America out the window, the nations all stopped what they were doing and stared. The girl seemed to cease all motion for a second, a terrified look spreading across her face. Then she turned and strode from the room so fast she almost seemed to vanish. Nobody else moved for a long minute, trying to absorb the shattered window, America's sudden disappearance through said window, and Li's escape from the room.

Then Russia started to giggle. Those that had been scared by Li's sudden outburst felt their fear worsen. But the sound also spurred Germany's mind back into motion, and he closed his gaping mouth while pushing Italy off of his arm. The other nation had clutched at him in fear when the crash of America hitting the glass had first sounded in the room, as if he was trying to cut off all the circulation by himself. Italy protested weakly, but Germany told him to go see if America was all right. England seemed to have the same idea, as he was already climbing out the window, being careful of the shards of glass.

Satisfied that Italy would not follow him, Germany slipped out as the other nations began to slowly recover from their shock. He made his way to Li's room, trying not to run. Several servants were rushing towards the meeting room, wondering what in the world these strange people had done this time. It was probably a bit sad that they all knew enough to bring first-aid kits with them.

The upstairs was quiet, but as he reached the top of the stairs Germany heard a door slam shut violently. He hurried to find that it had, in fact, been the door to Li's room. Germany was standing before her door, hand raised to knock, before he could stop himself. She had run off for a reason: she probably wanted privacy. Should he really disturb her? Even after she'd left such a mess in the meeting room?

He lowered his hand, then raised it again as his mind changed twice in only a second. For a good five minutes, he stood there debating whether or not to knock. But every time he made his mind up for one or the other, and began to take the appropriate action, he thought again.

Finally, a sound from inside the room came to his attention. It was Li's voice, saying something so painfully he wondered if she'd been injured again. But it wasn't a cry for help: rather, it sounded like a name. Perhaps it was a friend, a relative, a boyfriend? His hand, raised and poised for knocking, fell limply to his side once more as he strained his ears, trying to hear.

"Ruuu…" Li sobbed inside. "Ru…come get me…please…" Ru? It sounded like an Asian name—so did Li's name, actually. Now that he thought about it, her original clothing had seemed somewhat Asian as well. Her country must be somewhere around China or Japan's place. That might help narrow down the area to be searched for this so-called "Fire Nation"…if such a place even existed.

Right now, though, Li was on the other side of that door, crying out for someone who might not come. It made Germany feel sorry for her, on top of what little else he knew about her. And really, how much did he even know about Li? He knew she had scars on her legs—he knew Russia had found her in the snow, covered in blood that wasn't her own—he knew that she had lied about who she truly was—he knew that she had just thrown America out a window.

The window part made no sense. Germany hadn't been looking towards Li when she had thrown America, though he had certainly turned to look quickly enough upon hearing the crash. She had been standing next to England, who was staring at her in awe and fear, her body in a stance that looked practiced. Had she been trained to fight? Did America do something to make himself seem like a threat? If so, what could he have possibly done?

"Li?" Germany called, putting a hand on the door. "Are you in there?" The pained noises stopped abruptly, and Germany could imagine the girl furiously wiping at her face with her sleeve. He almost smiled at the thought, but the seriousness of the situation prevented it. Instead, he put his ear to the door, trying to catch any sign that she was in trouble.

"G-go away." Li's voice cracked, and she paused a moment before speaking again. "Please. Just go away. I wanna be alone."

"Are you sure?" Germany pressed gently. A noise that could have been a "Yes" came from beyond the door, and he sighed. "Very well. I'm leaving." He waited a moment longer before turning and taking a step away.

Behind him, the door clicked open. "Um. Wait." Li mumbled. "I…I guess…I wouldn't mind…" She fell silent, then opened the door wider. "You can come in if you want…" Came the quiet conclusion. Li stepped aside, and Germany walked in quietly.

Once he was inside, Li left the door open and went to sit on the bed, curling her knees up to her chest. Germany paused for a moment, looking for where he should sit, then settled into the chair before the vanity. He studied Li for a long moment, debating whether or not he should speak. She was resting her forehead against her knees, taking deep, steady breaths. Her body shook occasionally, but she always seemed to force herself still the moment she began to tremble. That was…intriguing.

Germany decided he had waited long enough. "Why did you attack America?" He asked gently, trying not to sound threatening. Li froze for a moment, then clutched her legs tightly and spoke in a low, dull voice.

"Because." She muttered grudgingly, not looking at Germany. The nation realized it must be a private matter, and debated pressing the issue. He had just reached the decision to let it go when she spoke again. "He…hugged me, okay?"

"You threw him out a window because he hugged you?" Germany couldn't hide the surprise in his voice. "That's your reason for attacking him? Just that?"

"I…I don't like being touched, okay?" Li sounded offended now, and she curled into a tighter ball on the bed. "It…freaks me out. Just because." Her voice sounded close to tears as she requested, "Please, just let it rest."

"Very well." Germany agreed, continuing to study Li. Her skirt, which went to her ankles while she was standing, now rode up to mid-calf, exposing the scars on her bare legs. The spider-web of scars seemed to go further up her legs than that, however, and Germany wondered what could have caused them. They seemed like they had been inflicted at roughly the same time, if Germany was any judge of wounds—and he definitely was. A soldier first, he knew his fair share about injuries, and sported multiple scars across his own body. Even if the wounds on Li had been light, they were placed over veins and nerves, meaning they would have bled profusely and caused more pain than usual.

Li's tight grip on her legs slowly loosened, and she peeked up at Germany over her knees. He saw unshed tears in her eyes, and his gaze softened. This only made Li look away again, and Germany felt disappointed. The urge to say or do something comforting overtook him, and he cast around for something to say.

"Li, you know…" He started, before trailing off. Li looked up at him again, this time expectantly, as he struggled to find the words for what he wanted to say. Again, he tried, "I'm sure nobody blames you…" but that wasn't true, someone would definitely blame her. Finally, he settled for, "They'll forgive you as soon as you explain."

"How can you be so sure?" Li challenged, fixing Germany with a steady gaze.

"How…? Because I know them." Germany blinked once, a bit surprised. "I've known all of them for years. They can be difficult at times, all of them, some more than others, but at heart each of them are good people. Living as long as we do, we need to learn to get along with all kinds of people. Even if you've given them a bad impression, they'll get over it soon enough."

"I guess." Li looked away from Germany, resting her forehead against her knees again. The nation watched her, wondering if she was all right. He knew he wasn't the best at reading people, but he felt what was probably a natural curiosity about this girl. Her unexplained appearance made him naturally suspect something strange was going on, and her reluctance to offer up any information on her past only served to enforce this. But he didn't feel that she was a threat, despite her violent outbursts. If anything, he felt like she needed protecting.

Li shifted her position, getting more comfortable. Her body tightened in on itself as if by instinct, as if she was protecting herself from something, and Germany thought he knew why she seemed so harmless. She was vulnerable, no matter how hard she tried to hide it, no matter how skillfully she played at the calm and collected young woman. Now that her "mask," of sorts, was off, it seemed like every move she made was to protect herself, or to try and put on that mask again.

Germany realized he was staring at Li's scars, and quickly shifted his gaze to her hair. It had been cut to chin length by Austria, and looked marvelous—though the aristocrat probably wouldn't have allowed her to leave his ministrations until her hair was "just right." She had brown hair, maybe a bit lighter than Lovino's, which seemed to have bronze highlights shot throughout. There was no more clotted blood in her hair, and it shone without the dull liquid, looking soft and smooth.

Wait. What? Germany immediately pushed the thoughts from his head, and tried to find something else to study about Li. But her face was hidden behind her legs, and her arms were hidden by the long sleeves of the shirt she wore. As for her hands…they were clutching at her legs tightly, as if she was scared of letting go. Perhaps she was. Li's fingernails were of medium length, not very long but not trimmed very far. They were still stained pinkish from the blood, even though it had been a while now since she had cleaned her hands. Streaks of red marked the back of her hand, and some of her fingers, dry skin flaking off. But it didn't look too bad, and besides, with a little lotion her hands would be smooth and delicate…wait. What?

"Um." Germany started a bit, and his gaze lifted from Li's hands to see that she had raised her head to look at him once more. A small flush of red spread over her cheeks as she spoke. "Okay, look, this is gonna sound really weird, but…is that your natural hair color, or did you dye it?"

"What?" Germany looked at Li blankly, not quite understanding the question. "My hair…? Yes, of course this is its natural color. _Mein Haar ist blond_. Er, I mean, I'm blond."

"Blond?" Li repeated, brow furrowing in confusion. "What's…blond?"

"You don't know what blond is." It was a statement, not a question, and Germany instinctively rubbed his hand through his slicked-back hair. "Blond is…yellow hair. It's very common in Germany, and many parts of Europe. There are several different shades."

"It is natural, then?" Li lowered her legs, staring at his hair with fascination. "I thought it was dyed. My cousin Kai and my friends Xing and Ming have the lightest natural hair colors back home, but we've met people who use vegetable colorings for cloth to make their hair the most insane colors."

"_Was?_ _N-nein_! _Mein Haar ist nicht gefärbt_!" Germany gasped, before realizing he'd spoken in his native tongue, and hastily repeated himself in English, which seemed to be her native tongue. "I-I do not have dyed hair! Why would you think that?"

"Nobody back home had yellow hair." Li admitted, seeming a tad reluctant. "It was all black or brown, but never yellow. Blond. I've seen people with dyes in their hair, though, so I thought maybe you'd done the same to yours. As a…status symbol, or something." She shrugged.

Germany, meanwhile, was filing away the information about her home. No blondes, hm? That ruled out most of Europe and North America, at least, even if she did speak English. Asia seemed more and more likely as a good place to search for this "Fire Nation." Later he could show Li some maps, ask if she recognized anything, though he got the feeling she would lie. Still, he could always try…

Li saw the calculation in his eyes, and her own widened as she realized he must have garnered more information from her words. Almost instantly, a veil fell over her face, shutting down anything that might have been there previously. Germany felt a pang of regret—he had learned something, but it seemed Li had closed up again. Just when she seemed to be ready to tell the truth, she shrank away, hiding behind that mask. But hiding from what?

Several minutes passed as they looked at each other, Germany trying to think of a way to restart the conversation without putting Li on her guard again. She seemed to have totally forgotten what had happened downstairs, which was his original purpose in coming here. The blame, as far as Germany was concerned, rested on America and Russia, the former for being his usual idiotic self, the latter for allowing Li to attend the meeting in the first place. She was just a civilian, and had no say in their going-ons. Granted, she had made America and China focus, but that was only a happy coincidence. Someone else—likely Russia, who enjoyed hitting America even with the end of the Cold War and used any excuse he could find to touch China—would have separated them eventually.

"Um, excuse me?" A gentle knock came from the door, and the two looked over to see Hungary standing in the open doorway. "Li, I came to see if you were all right."

"I'm fine." Li answered calmly. "Did you want to come in?"

"No, it's all right." Hungary shook her head. "So long as Germany's here, it should be fine. I actually need to go and see how America's doing, he's a little…scared." She winced as Li's face fell. Definitely shouldn't have brought up America. "Well…good-bye." And with that, Hungary beat a hasty retreat. Germany felt a little annoyed at her—what, had she intended to make Li feel even more guilty?

After that, Germany didn't know what to say to Li. The two sat in silence, each trying not to look at the other due to the sheer awkwardness that both knew would result. Of course, every once in a while one of them would dare a glance at the other, just to see what the other was doing. Occasionally, a voice could be heard shouting downstairs, but neither paid much attention.

Perhaps an hour after Germany had entered the room, Lithuania appeared. "Um, Germany, the meeting is starting again." He said timidly. "Russia told me to come get you and Li."

"Oh, thank you, Lithuania." Germany nodded his thanks and stood, turning expectantly to Li. The girl looked surprised, but quickly recovered and shook her head vigorously, hiding her face in her knees once more.

"I think maybe I should stay up here for the rest of the day." She said miserably. "Though…Lithuania, if you could pass my apologies on to America?"

"He'll probably insist on coming up here to see you, Miss Li." Lithuania advised with a kind smile. "Once he got over the shock of being tossed through a window, he thought it was pretty awesome—'awesome' being his own word. Are you sure you don't want to come down? Some of us are really worried about you. Plus…" The kind nation's face grew scared, and he choked out, "R-Russia specifically asked that you come down…"

"Sorry, but no." Li sighed. "I…tell him I decided I'm too tired. Or that I wanted to change my shirt, and can't decide what to change into, so it's taking a while. But I'm not going back down there…it would be too…too awkward." She drew her knees up again, and Germany could have sworn he heard her mutter, "I'll just mess things up like I always do…"

"Well, if you're sure…" Lithuania hesitated in the door, clearly torn between staying and trying to convince Li to come downstairs or simply accepting her wishes and informing Russia of her decision. Germany decided to help him out.

"Why don't you stay here and watch her, Lithuania?" The blond nation suggested. "Perhaps you could get her something? I'll tell Russia what you're doing, and that I thought Li should have some company for now."

"Eh? Really?" Lithuania looked at Germany as if the taller man was an angel. "I…I'll do that! Li, are you hungry? Thirsty? Cold? Anything else you might need? Oh, and I can wash your shirt once you've changed! Thank you Germany! Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!" He made a move as if to hug Germany, seemed to think better of it, then instead went and sat on the edge of Li's bed, still exuberantly speaking about how thankful he was and asking if Li needed anything.

Germany gave a last glance at Li, who was looking at Lithuania blankly as the nation asked if she wanted any vodka ("Um…what is vodka? It sounds like a plant…?"), then made his way downstairs.

"Germany!" Italy cried, attaching himself to his old friend's arm. "Thank goodness you're here! I was sooo scared! Li's really nice and all, but she acted kinda scary when she threw America through the window, and I was worried she might do the same thing to you! Are you all right? Did she throw you too?" Eyes open for once, the adorable little nation gazed up at Germany with eyes shining bright with tears.

"No, I'm fine. It was an accident on Li's part." Germany sighed.

"Accident! Hardly!" England strode over. "She threw America so quickly, he didn't have a chance to defend himself! What was with that! The girl is dangerous!"

"Yeah! Veneziano, get away from that potato-bastard!" Romano added, popping up and tugging on Italy's arm.

"She did it reflexively." Germany explained to England. "I couldn't learn why out of her, other than that she doesn't like being touched. And America being America, I suppose it's best it happened sooner rather than later. How is he doing?"

"Hmph. He's fine, the git." England grumbled. "A bit shaken, confused as to what he did, but fine. Won't stop prattling on about how 'cool' it was that Li could do that. I bet he'll forget all about this in no time, and do the same bloody thing again."

"Hopefully in someone else's house." Russia joined the conversation. "I rather liked that window. Germany, where are Li and Lithuania? They are coming, da?" On the last sentence, Russia's purple aura blossomed into being around him, and his smile lost most of its childish innocence. With that loss came the gain of murderous insane-serial-killer intensity.

"Li thought she should stay upstairs for the rest of the day, and I told Lithuania that he should keep an eye on her just in case." Germany told Russia, fighting his fear for the former Communist nation. "They won't be joining us. But Li wasn't supposed to be here originally, and Lithuania's interests can be represented by another country, so I felt it would be acceptable to everyone else."

"Ohh…" Russia sounded sad, and his aura disappeared. Then his usual I'm-a-creepy-serial-killer-with-a-childish-attitude smile reappeared, and he went to go speak with the two remaining Baltics.

"Hey, Germany!" America called, limping over. "How's Li? Why'd she attack me?"

"Oh, America. Are you all right?" Germany asked the last question because of the crutches the superpower was using to walk. "Should you be here still? I'm sure Russia wouldn't mind giving you a day to recover."

"Nah, I'm good!" America bragged. "But my stomach really hurts for some reason, so I can't stand straight up without screaming in pain. It's really cool, huh? Hahaha!" Germany wondered how America could be so constantly idiotic. "Anyways, Li! Is she okay?"

"Yes, I think so." Germany replied. "You caught her off-guard, is all. It seems she has an aversion to being touched, so I don't think you should hug her again. And why in the world were you hugging her in the first place?"

"She said I was a hero! I was happy!" America grinned. "I kinda like her. Well, she's attacked me twice now, but it's cool! She'd just apologized to me and Iggy for it when I hugged her, so I'm sure there aren't any hard feelings!"

"You're a little optimistic about being thrown into the snow, aren't you?" England berated his ex-colony. "My goodness, America. Try being responsible for once!"

"No way! That's too boring!" America laughed. "Well, the hero has to go help France get his notes together about that new trade agreement between us ready, so I'll talk to you later, guys!" With a thumbs-up and a flashy smile, America hobbled off on his crutches, occasionally grunting in pain.

"He's going to get killed one day. And I won't be surprised when it happens." England spat in disgust. "Ah, Germany…what are Italy and Romano doing?"

"Eh?" Germany glanced at his arm, where Italy had previously been trying to stop all circulation. "Italy? Where are—?" He glanced behind him to see Romano dragging his younger brother towards their seats. "Oh. He'll be fine."

"Everyone, take your seats, aru!" China called. "We're going to start again, aru!" The nations quickly reclaimed their places around the meeting table, and the world meeting began for the third time in as many days.

* * *

**Me: Well now! Wasn't that interesting...**

**Li: I hate you.**

**Me: Yes, you've mentioned. Quite a bit.**

**Li: Aargh...stop making my life difficult!**

**Me: Oh, just waaaait for the next chapter, honey...**

**Li: O.O**


	11. Ghosts

**Heeey people! This is my chapter-in-advance, featuring the appearance of a character you never saw coming!**

**Li: Who?**

**Me: Read and find out. By the way, I don't own Hetalia: Axis Powers or Avatar: The Last Airbender. Just the lovely dance monkey Li. And aaaaaall her friends.**

* * *

Li drank her cup of tea slowly, pondering the strange flavor. It was what Lithuania called "Earl Gray," a drink from England's homeland. She was starting to grasp the idea of nations a bit better after a long chat with Lithuania. The breakthrough had come when she had correlated the human-nations with nature spirits from back home. People in the Earth Kingdom mainly worshipped spirits that ruled certain places or geographical features, who usually took the form of an animal. One such example would be Hei Bai, the "Black-and-White Spirit," who protected a lovely forestland in the western Earth Kingdom.

Lithuania, after getting over his initial excitement, had been extremely pleasant company. He seemed genuinely eager to please, and kept insisting on doing things himself. Since Li tried do things for others all the time, it had led to the two bonding some over mending Lithuania had brought along, intending to get it done during the meeting. Now that it was finished (twice as fast as it would have gone, since Li had helped), Lithuania had managed to fall asleep.

He looked rather adorable, really. Li had allowed him the bed, and was now sitting at the desk with the mirror (Lithuania had called it a "vanity") and finishing the tea Lithuania had brought up. The tea kettle sat nearby on the desk—no, vanity—mostly empty. Lithuania's cup was still half-full, but Li wasn't going to be rude and drink from it. Instead, she watched Lithuania sleep, a small smile on her face as he occasionally twitched or mumbled something.

It occurred to Li that part of why she was enjoying watching him was because he looked so much like a little child. To be specific…he reminded her of how her little brother Kuzon had sometimes fallen asleep, sprawled out in childish comfort, heedless of dignity. She would sing to him, her little dragon, and stroke his hair and hold him in her lap and dream of what a strong warrior he would grow to be. Kuzon had been a central part of Li's life ever since a little after he was born, six years ago, when Li was twelve and freshly caught after being on the run for almost four whole years. That she had not been present for her own brother's birth pained Li sometimes, but she wouldn't have been allowed much access to him for the first few months anyways.

Ah, but when he was six months old, Li had finally held her little brother. Cradling the precious bundle in her arms, seeing his tiny features, having that little hand grasp her finger…it had changed Li's life. She knew what her elder brother Aizo had meant when he said that he had loved his sister the moment he held her. Such a small, fragile thing, Kuzon had seemed, totally dependent on others for his own survival.

Their mother had never been very interested in her children—her marriage to Fire Lord Jizo had been arranged, political matters trumping love as they always did. Li had done her best to be a mother as well as a sister to Kuzon, hanging around his nursery whenever she had the time (and many times when she didn't). She had been present when he took his first step—his first word had been "sister." When he started showing signs of Firebending, Li had tried to teach him the basics of control, doing a decent job until she was able to convince her father and Master Qien to allow her baby brother to join her in Firebending training.

A shudder wracked Li's body, accompanied by a deep, stabbing pain in her chest. She tightened her hands around the cup, and stared into the dark liquid as if it were a seeing mirror, trying to glimpse Kuzon's face. Memories of her brother assaulted her in waves, each one bringing fresh injury to Li's heart. The time they had stayed a whole summer on Ember Island with Ru, Kai, and Master Qien, going to the beach almost every day and building sandcastles. One night when she had snuck Kuzon out of the palace and taken him to a field of fire lilies, where they had lain on their backs and drawn new constellations in the stars. Several months before the first attack of the Tóngyī ShÌjiè on Ba Sing Se, Li had taken Kuzon to a Fire Days Festival in one of the outlying islands. Remembering the wonder on Kuzon's face as he watched performers Firebend magic tricks, Li bit her lip again to prevent tears.

Because Kuzon was gone. He had disappeared from her life, like a shooting star. All because she had wanted to spend some time with her peers, without him, without the little brother she had practically raised. How could she have told him to wait with their parents? Their father hardly paid him any attention, preferring to entertain himself in discussions with his ministers and generals and scholars, while their mother had only wanted the energetic little boy to sit still and behave like a doll. Yueliang, Kuzon's bodyguard, was only a few years older than his charge: how could he have been expected to properly protect the boy?

And now, Kuzon was…he was…

"_Liiiii….._"

"Huh?" Li's head jerked up, automatically turning to Lithuania. "Did you say something?"

"Huh?" Lithuania opened an eye groggily, then sat upright. "Oh! I'm so sorry! I fell asleep!"

"Oh, that's alright, but…" Li hesitated "Did you…say anything, just now? Or hear anything?" Lithuania gave her a blank look and shook his head slowly. "Ah. Okay. Must've been my imagination."

"_Liiiiii….._"

Now Li was sure Lithuania had heard the voice, because he stiffened in shock and his eyes widened. Seeing confirmation she was not crazy, Li turned her head, scanning the room for any possible sources of the noise. "M-Miss Li…" Lithuania whispered, voice cracking, "is that…could it be a…?"

"_Liiiii…_"

"Ghost." Li squeaked, recognizing the voice at last. "It's a ghost." She set her cup of tea down with trembling hands, and walked to the door. Sticking her head out, she looked one way—all clear. Then she looked the other way—still clear.

"Do you see anything?" Lithuania called fearfully.

"No." Li turned back inside—

"_Li…_"

—and froze.

Standing before her was a young boy, perhaps six or seven, with amber-gold eyes and dark brown hair. His face had little puppy fat, and his arms showed that even at a young age the child possessed muscle. A topknot had been carefully fashioned out of his hair, held in place by a red band with a two-pronged golden fire emblem. He was wearing a long red shirt, sleeveless, that was held together in the front by tiny gold buttons. A yellow sash around his waist had a tiny dagger stuck in it, and his shoes came to a traditional Fire Nation upturn point.

Kuzon?

* * *

"So, moving on from the topic of the Middle East, I think it's time we discussed what we've been doing to prevent global warming." Germany had taken charge of the meeting again, as usual, and was reading from the tentative schedule a secretary had printed for him before he left for Moscow. "America is not allowed to speak, does anyone have any ideas?" There was a pause, and Italy raised a hand. "Are you just going to say 'Pasta!' Italy?" The hand lowered slowly.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEK!" A shrill, somewhat feminine scream split the air. Everyone started, knocking over water glasses or falling out of chairs.

"That came from upstairs!" Latvia cried. "Lithuania!"

But several nations had already gathered as much, and were dashing out the door, heading for the staircase. Germany and Russia were in the lead, followed by America ("The hero ALWAYS answers a cry for help!"), England ("That was a _scream_, you bloody git, not a cry for help!"), Japan, Hungary, and at a more leisurely pace behind them, Austria. Everyone else in the room reacted in their own ways, from Korea glomping China in fear to Sweden not giving any indication he had heard anything.

"Lithuania! Li!" Germany yelled, reaching the doorway, panting heavily. "Are you alright?"

"GHOOOOOOOST!" Lithuania shrieked in the same high-pitched tone as the scream. The other nations following Germany skidded to a stop behind him, several almost running into him. Upon hearing the word "ghost," America gave a similar shriek and grabbed at England.

"Ghost? Where?" He squeezed the older nation's arm. "I—I'm not scared! The hero is never scared! Nope!" Nobody drew attention to his chattering teeth, or the fact that he'd turned white enough to be mistaken for a ghost himself.

"It was right there! RIGHT THERE!" Lithuania wailed, pointing to a spot on the floor. Germany scanned the scene, eyes immediately lighting on Li. She was lying on the floor, on her side, arms and legs twitching sporadically.

"What happened to her?" Germany demanded, going to kneel beside Li. He felt for a pulse, and found one, albeit weak. "Is she all right?" Everyone else piled into the room behind him.

"Sh-she must have fainted when she saw the ghost." America insisted, still clinging to England. The thick-eyebrowed nation was trying to escape, despite his limb being more or less impossible to see, America was so tightly wrapped around it.

"N-no, it wasn't the first ghost that did it." Lithuania shook his head, tears starting to drip from his eyes. "It was…the second ghost…"

"What's going on?" Austria arrived at last, followed by Prussia (the reason he was late). The two newcomers looked at the group of nations in the room, from Lithuania sitting on the bed trembling to Germany and Russia's confused looks.

"Lithuania says he saw a ghost." Russia replied, looking down at Li. "And that Li fainted. She looks very ill. I wonder if she'll wake up?" His purple aura bloomed into existence as he considered the possibility of Li never waking up again, sending Lithuania into a state of near-panic.

"Impossible. There are no such things as ghosts." Austria addressed Lithuania. "Clearly you were mistaken."

"N-no, I'm sure of it!" Lithuania insisted, defending his story. "Li woke me up because she thought I'd said something, but I hadn't. Then this little kid's voice started calling her name, and she seemed to recognize it, because she went pale. And this kid, really young, maybe five or six or seven, just appeared in front of her. She was staring at him when the second ghost appeared, and…um…I kind of fainted." He looked down in embarrassment.

"You were asleep when she first heard the ghost, Lithuania?" Russia asked, a tiny, murderous smile on his face. Lithuania turned as white as the sheets he was sitting on, and he began to stutter something about being tired from the meeting before being cut off.

"Perhaps we should tend to Li now?" Germany suggested, a rough edge to his voice. "She is lying unconscious on the floor. The least we could do is make her more comfortable." His gaze turned to Prussia, and he beckoned his elder brother over. "Bruder, help me move her to the bed."

"Sure thing, West." Prussia shrugged, and as Germany carefully cradled Li's upper body in his arms, the albino ex-nation picked up her feet. The occasional spasm shot through her body, making it hard to keep a good hold on her and explaining to Prussia why his younger brother had wanted help moving her. Lithuania slid off the bed, and helped arrange the pillows so that when Li was finally lowered onto the sheets, her upper half was elevated slightly.

"Should I get a doctor?" Hungary asked fearfully, looking to Austria. He shook his head, and went over to where Germany was again feeling for a pulse in Li's wrist.

"How strong is her pulse?" The aristocrat murmured softly, bending over to open one of her eyelids. Beneath the layer of skin, her dark brown eye was darting around madly, indicating she was dreaming.

"A bit weak…but it's there." Germany replied, placing Li's arm alongside her body. He glanced up at the other nations. "Hungary, perhaps you should get some water? Lithuania, you must know where to find more blankets and pillows, don't you? And Japan, can you get America and England to stop trembling?" Sure enough, the world superpower and former world superpower were sitting in a corner, clutching at each other in horror as they bolstered the other's fear that the ghost—no, ghosts, wasn't it?—was going to come back and eat them.

"Right away, Germany-san." Japan bowed, and went to talk to his two friends. Hungary and Lithuania disappeared as well, going to retrieve water and bedding respectively. Austria stood up and went to sit in a chair nearby, thinking hard. He was no doctor, but it was mostly accepted that he had the most medical knowledge of all the nations. Germany and Prussia were still standing at the side of Li's bed, watching the girl as she twitched in her sleep.

"I wonder what she's dreaming about…" Russia mused, looming eerily at the side of Li's bed.

* * *

_Dark. That was all Li knew. She was lost in a sea of black. "Hello?" Li called, but her voice sounded thin, weak. Ghostly. Dead…_

_"No! She's supposed to be with me! With _me!_" A familiar voice shrieked, and Li whirled around to search for its source. "Li! Li! Tell her! Tell her you're supposed to be with me! Please!"_

_"Kuzon? Kuzon? Kuzon, my dragon, where are you?" Li screamed, frantic now, trying to catch a glimpse of the child. "My Kuzon, my dragon, little brother, where are you? Kuzon? Kuzon!" She could almost feel wetness dripping down her cheeks, tears, a weakness she denied was there, as she searched._

_"No, Li! Don't go to him!" Another voice, as familiar as Kuzon's, if not more so, rang out. "You have to stay where you are! I can't save you if you go to him!_"

_"R-Ru?" Li choked out, now confused. Ru was her protector, her friend, her rock. Anything Ru did was to keep Li safe. But how was keeping Li from her beloved little brother protecting her? Didn't she know that Kuzon had been half of Li's world, part of all that had kept her alive? "Ru, Kuzon's alive…please, I have to go to him!"_

_"No Li! He's not!" Ru's voice was trembling, and she sounded like she was getting farther away. "Li, I can't find you! Where are you? Please, don't go to him! He'll take you to the Land of the Dead and I'll never be able to find you again! I'll never see you again! Don't go, don't go, don't go…" Her voice took up the two words like a magical chant, as if saying them would help her find Li again. "How am I supposed to live without you…?"_

_"Ru?" Li whispered, then more loudly, "Ru!" There was no answer. "Ru, please, talk to me! Come find me! Please!"_

_"I'm coming…" Ru's voice faded away._

_"Sister…" The sorrowful, childish voice of Kuzon sighed. "I don't want to wait for you to come to me…I want you now. Li, I want you here with me. There's nobody to play with. Can't you come see me?"_

_"K-Kuzon…" Li's chest constricted as she tried to speak. "My dragon, I can't…if Ru says I can't, then I can't. You know what it's like. And what about Yueliang? Isn't he with you? Can't he p-play with you?" Her tongue seemed to grow several sizes, preventing further speech as her throat closed in on itself. A low moan of pain escaped her lips, and Li bit her cheek to prevent herself from truly crying._

_"No…he went someplace else…" Kuzon seemed annoyed at that. Well, Yueliang had been his constant companion, despite the age difference of two years. Yueliang was Ru's younger brother, although the two looked almost nothing alike and barely spoke. He was also Kuzon's bodyguard, and the relationship between the two was a much-watered down mirror of the relationship between Li and Ru. Doubtless, when Kuzon's life had been in peril, Yueliang had fought like a demon to save the boy, even knowing he stood no chance against older, more experienced fighters who had the advantages of height, weight, and strength._

_"Th-then…oh, Kuzon, I'm sorry." Li's throat opened enough for her to talk again. "I can't go to you. But one day, one day! I'll make it as soon as I can, if you want! But not now, not when Ru told me not to. Just wait a little longer!"_

_"Li…" Kuzon's voice began to fade as well. She still couldn't see anything in the darkness that surrounded her, but Li allowed herself the dream that he was standing just before her, slowly falling backwards into the black, an arm outstretched to her, his eyes begging her to take it…_

_Then it was as if he had vanished entirely, and Li felt alone. Totally, completely, horribly alone. She curled herself up into a ball, attempting to deny the emptiness around her, but she couldn't see anything anyways. Her hand was right in front of her face, she knew, but her eyes weren't finding anything. No, wait…her eyes…_

_Weren't they just closed?_

**So. Who saw that one coming? 3:D**

**Li: You...you...YOU USED MY DEAD LITTLE BROTHER FOR A PLOT TWIST?**

**Me: Aren't you happy to see him again?**

**Li: NOT IF HE'S GONNA BE ALL DEPRESSED ABOUT IT!**

**Me: Oh...sorry...will reviews make you feel better?**

**Li: No.**

**Me: Oh. Well, they'll make my guilt feel less, sorta, so I'd love it if you people wouldn't mind sending a few in!**


	12. Remember

**Me no own Hetalia! And Internet is bad, so sorry, can't say much more!**

* * *

"Mmn…?" Li forced her eyes open, waking herself from the bizarre dream of blackness and Kuzon and Ru. Her vision was blurry, eyes reluctant to work, but she could make out several figures standing over her. One was Germany: next to him was a man with white hair and red eyes that Li recognized from the meeting earlier. And, looming on the opposite side of her bed…was Russia.

"Good morning!" The nation chirped cheerfully, the childish smile Li was learning to expect from him plastered across his face. "Did you sleep well?"

Li's mind flickered back to her dream-vision-thing, then deserted her altogether as she stared at the imposing nation-personification. A tiny part of her giggled inwardly at the phrase (Nation-personification, it rhymes, teehee!) while the rest of her just blanked out. Not that she wanted to look like an idiot, staring at a man who was well over half a foot taller than her—probably three-quarters of a foot, if she got down to it—with wide eyes and a mouth hanging slightly open.

Yeah, their estimations of her intelligence level must be so high right now.

"I have water!" Hungary announced triumphantly, entering the room. _Salvation!_ Li thought, thankful she wouldn't have to answer the question now. "Oh, Li's awake? Thank goodness! I was getting worried! Li, how are you feeling?"

"Huh? Um—I'm alright?" Li forced herself to look away from Russia's creepy stare, which was harder than it sounded. The sheer intensity of his gaze—which was currently giving a serial killer-esque impression—was fixating. It made Li feel like a trapped jackalope, staring up at the saber-toothed moose-lion or platypus bear about to eat it. And she hated feeling like that, mostly because it seemed to be a very common state to find herself in lately, whenever she fought one of her many enemies in the Tóngyī ShÌjiè.

"Oh, that's good! Here, I brought some water. There's warm water in case you were cold, but I don't think you'll need that now, and a pitcher of ice-water if you're thirsty." Hungary deposited her armful onto the vanity, and turned to face Li. "Lithuania should be along in a little bit with some more pillows and blankets—we didn't know how long you were going to be asleep, so we thought you might be more comfortable if we added some blankets."

"Um…I'm fine, thanks…" Li's mind still felt woozy from whatever had happened, and she wasn't sure she could keep up with the present moment. It wasn't that she was tired—no, she felt very awake. The closest thing this could be compared to was the effects of Shirshu poison, which numbed the body and mind while keeping the victim mostly aware. Though there seemed to be a small amount of loopiness as well that was similar to the time Li had accidentally consumed cactus juice. For the record, she blamed the Avatar. Everything had been his fault, as usual.

"So," Russia sat down on the bed, and Li involuntarily flinched away. Everyone else looked uneasy too, but Li was probably feeling worst out of all of them. Especially because Russia leaned in somewhat before continuing to speak. "What did you dream about?"

Li stiffened, automatically shrinking away from Russia. What did she dream about? What sort of question was that? Did he…did he have some way of knowing what she was? _Who_ she was? But how? How could he know? Would they throw her in jail? Torture her? Nausea rose up in Li's stomach, accompanied by an icy pang of terror. She…was she going to be killed? Die, before Ru had a chance to find her, to save her?

"Russia, perhaps you should go end the meeting." Austria suggested before Li could panic and attack somebody again. "We've already covered most of the major topics, and we'll be having another meeting in a month anyways. There is no need to continue." Russia looked disappointed for a second, then rose and strode out the door without another word. He did pause at the door, however, and looked back at Li with a happy, sadistic, little-child-murderer smile that made her shudder.

"Thank you thank you thank you." Li gushed towards Austria when she was positive Russia couldn't hear her. "That was scary. Really scary. Thank you thank you thank you. Um, do you know why he asked that? It was creepy. And scary. Really scary. Um, I said that already, didn't I? Sorry, but that was really weird and I'm not grasping things very well at the moment and I'm babbling aren't I? Sorry." She fell silent, trying not to breathe heavily from the adrenaline shooting through her veins. Her hands had clenched into fists, twisting the sheets, and she hadn't even noticed.

"Um. Calm down, please." Germany advised, almost laying a hand on Li's shoulder before thinking better of it. He opted instead for propping a pillow up behind her. "You should lay down. Even if you feel fine, you collapsed suddenly for no good reason."

"Um. I think there was a good reason." Li said without thinking, then cursed herself mentally and stopped her hand before it could cover her mouth. There was no need to get them suspicious! "I…I saw a ghost. Seems like a good reason to pass out to me." Had Lithuania seen what happened after his scream? When she had whirled to see what the sudden noise was, his eyes had been scrunched up, closed, as his mouth issued the piercing, surprisingly feminine sound. But he could have opened them again. He could have seen. And he could have told them…

"So, just what happened?" The white-haired man with red eyes sat himself on down on the side of bed, almost mirroring Russia by leaning in towards Li. She inched back, determined to keep him out of her space bubble, too rattled by her dream to think of allowing anyone to get close to her. "You look pretty shaken," the oddly-colored man continued, not paying attention to her attempt to put more space between them. "Have a bad dream?"

"Um…you might say that…" Li's memories of the dream, still fresh from only moments ago, bubbled up to the surface of her mind, and she felt herself beginning to shake. Ru. Ru had been here, she had been right here, and now she was gone, dragged off by some unknown force. Her Ru had found her, but now her Ru was gone again.

Ru.

Was.

Gone.

AGAIN.

"C-can I be alone?" Li requested softly. Her throat started to close on itself, and she didn't dare risk another word, for fear she might break down and cry before these people she barely knew. And that was unacceptable.

Because she was a Princess. Because she was strong. Because the only person she allowed to see her cry was Ru.

_"She's such a happy child. Do you know, I have never seen my daughter cry?"_

The nation-people left her room, most of them giving Li puzzled or pitying looks. America insisted loudly that he should stay to protect her in case the ghost came back, but Hungary hit him over the head with a frying pan and dragged him out before he could say anything more. Thank goodness. Li was starting to feel an overwhelming urge to break something, to destroy something, anything, and America was just as good as the next thing. Actually, he might be better, since hearing whatever she was abusing scream might make Li's rage dissipate more quickly.

But thankfully, they left her alone in her room.

Alone. Without Ru.

"Ru…" Li moaned, low and pained, throwing herself into the pillow Germany had propped up behind her. Her hands gripped the sheets more tightly, and actually began to tear the fabric as she clenched her fists more tightly. A ripping sound came from the cloth, and her fingernails began to dig into her palms, hard enough to draw blood. Small drops of red started to color the bedding, but Li didn't care. She welcomed the pain in her hands as a distraction, a distraction from the pain in her heart.

Ru had come. Ru had found her. Like she always did, Ru had found her way to Li. But then she had been snatched away, kicking and screaming most likely, torn away from the one person who needed Ru more than she needed to eat, sleep, or breathe.

What was Ru to Li? Ru was safety, comfort, a rock in the turbulent waters of life that sheltered and protected her. Li had almost never been without Ru, almost never done anything purely by herself. Oh, there had been a few things she had needed to do without Ru, and of course the necessary facts of life that would be embarrassing with Ru's presence. But never before in Li's life had she been apart from Ru, from her protector, from her rock, her best friend, for so long. Never before had Ru been snatched away so suddenly, especially after such a long time of being apart. Yes, several days translated into a long time for Ru and Li to be apart. Because they were never apart.

But what was Li to Ru? It was a question Li had never asked before, partially because she thought she knew the answer already, partially because she was scared of the answer being different from what she thought.

Because Li hoped that Ru depended on her as much as she depended on Ru. Look at her—alone, scared, almost helpless without Ru to stand at her shoulder and keep Li safe. Oh, not that Ru would allow Li to be weak: Ru had told Li countless times that she was, in fact, capable of surviving without Ru. But without Ru, what was the point of surviving? Without her rock, constantly within shouting distance, without the person who had held her as a child when she wept in deserted halls and rooms so that none would see her weakness, without the companion who had followed Li all over the world on a mad quest for someone who didn't even care…

How was Li supposed to survive without Ru?

No. No, she could do this. Ru had prepared her for this possibility, one of many, where she was in unknown, possibly enemy, territory and had no Ru to guide her. If Ru had foreseen this, planned out options for Li to take and then drilled them into her mind, she had darn well better use them!

So. What did she have available to her? The apparent kindness of semi-spirit beings, who had already offered her shelter, a way to make money, and alternative options to that if it didn't work out. Several of the nations seemed to trust her already, although Lithuania might have been somewhat off-put from her after what he had seen…

Ru…

* * *

_"Li…" Kuzon whispered, looking lovingly up at his elder sister. Li stared at him in shock, heart and mind racing, arguing, contradicting each other with what they knew. Her little brother was dead…but he was standing right in front of her!...but he was dead…but he was right there…right there!_

_"Ooh…" Lithuania moaned, and Li heard a thump coming from the bed. He had fainted. But Li wasn't paying him any attention, and the fact disappeared from her mind as soon as it registered. Because Kuzon…her darling little brother…her little dragon…he was alive._

_Kuzon was alive._

_"Ku—!" Li's voice choked off as she surged forward, arms spread to pick up her beloved younger sibling. "Kuzon—!"_

_"Li, no!" A voice yelled, and Li froze, face slowly morphing from one of exuberant joy to one of puzzlement and hope. She stared at her little brother as his face also changed, from childish adoration and joy to rage and anger and hatred, directed not at her, but at someone just behind Li, to her left side._

_"Ru…?" Li barely dared to whisper the name, but suddenly arms caught her up in a fierce hug, and she turned and returned the grasp as desperately as she was being given. Her eyes closed as tears started to well up, but that was okay, for once it was okay, because…because…_

_Because Ru was here too…_

_"Li." Ru said her name only once, but it contained so much relief, so much joy, so much pain that Li's eyes widened. Was this really Ru? She sounded so…so emotional, so un-Ru like, that it was hard to believe her stoic guard was really here. "I'm here…I've found you…"_

_"I know." Li managed to speak through her rapidly-constricting throat. "Ru, I never doubted you would find me. It just took you a few days, that's all."_

_"What?" Ru jerked back, and clutched Li's upper arms firmly as she stared at her charge. Her yellow-gold eyes were almost entirely circular, staring at Li in what seemed to be…confusion? What? But Ru was never confused! "Li, it's been maybe an hour since your…accident. I drank the spirit water, just now, and…and now I'm here."_

_"What? No way!" Li protested, ice forming in her gut. "I…I…Ru, I dreamt about that _last night_! There's no way you _just_ drank the spirit water! It-it can't be…what's…what is this…" Her head began to threaten a headache, that dull, anticipating feeling that always precedes a migraine. "Ru, I've been here three days, almost four, by now."_

_"What? No, impossible!" Ru gritted her teeth. "That spirit. Whoever it was that sent you here, whichever spirit it was that did this, must have screwed with the passage of time. I'm gonna have a few words with whoever they are the moment we find them."_

_"Violence isn't the answer, Ru." Li felt her lips start to curl at the beginning of the old joke. "Nor is it the question."_

_"I know." Ru sounded dead-serious, but a glint in her eye—almost unnoticeable, unless you knew her as well as Li did—betrayed she remembered the past laughter over this overused, worn-out saying. "It's merely a very fun method of explanation."_

_"There you go." Li giggled, then leaned her forehead in to touch Ru's briefly before withdrawing it and giving Ru her brightest, most sincere smile. "Now. You've found me."_

_"I have indeed." Ru almost chuckled, then grew serious. "Now, Li…about your last actions…?"_

_"Oh." Li suddenly felt like prey in the predator's sights. "Um. Yeah. About that…see, Ru, I—"_

_"IDIOT!" Ru shrieked, pulling Li closer to her. "I-DI-OT! Do you have any idea just how incredibly, horribly, terribly stupid you are? Did you even once think about what you were doing? What it would cost our team? Our nation? ME?"_

_"Well, um, I—" Li began, but Ru cut her off again._

_"I thought you were DEAD! I thought I had FAILED! Failed my duty, failed my family, failed YOU!" Ru's face began to turn red as blood rushed her head. "What in the spirits' names were you THINKING, you stupid, foolish, idiotic—! Did you even ONCE consider the people who NEED you? The people who NEED you to be a leader, a friend, a soldier, a symbol, their flaming HOPE? How are we going to pull off our rebellion against the Tóngyī ShÌjiè if you're dead, if the FIRE LORD is DEAD? And what about our team, what about Team Avatar, huh? Ever think about your FRIENDS, the people who've fought alongside you and for you and with you EVERY DAY SINCE THIS NIGHTMARE BEGAN?" Now Ru paused, panting, taking in air to continue yelling. Li saw her chance, and tried to take it._

_"Ru, I couldn't let you die—" The scared Fire Nation Princess began, but Ru regained her breath and sent Li a glare that froze the younger woman solid._

_"You. Couldn't let ME. Die." Her voice adopted a sarcastic edge, and Li realized she'd said the wrong thing. "You…just who is it that's sworn her life to serve you? Protect you? Keep you safe when the entire flaming WORLD is against you? And you couldn't let ME die? It's MY life for YOUR life, remember? That's the vow I swore the day you were flaming BORN! That's the reason I've LIVED MY ENTIRE LIFE! FOR YOU! And you…" Pain tinged Ru's voice, and Li could almost swear she saw tears in her friends eyes as Ru continued. "You tried to let yourself be killed. For. Me."_

_"I told Meiko to heal you first…" Li whispered. "I'm sorry, I didn't know what she would do…I, I thought she'd heal you THEN kill me, not do what she did…and even if it did cross my mind, I-I was gonna die anyways, wasn't I? I figured I might as well do what I could, save who I could, so you could at least have a chance at a happy li—"_

_"DON'T YOU DARE SAY IT!" Ru shoved her face close to Li's, invading Li's space bubble more drastically than she ever had before. "Don't you DARE say I'd have a happy life! Because without you, I can't LIVE at ALL! And I don't care if you thought you were going to turn into a Sky Bison and fly off into the sunset, DON'T YOU EVER DARE THINK OF DOING SOMETHING LIKE THAT AGAIN!"_

_"I—I…" Li's voice deserted her, as she stared at her friend with wide eyes. "Ru…I…are you…?" A hand reached out to brush her friend's cheek delicately, and came away wet. "Ru…are you…crying…?"_

_"Li." Behind her, Li heard her beloved little brother's, and she turned to face him once again, ready to resume the joyful reunion they had been about to share before Ru had made herself known. But her brother was staring at her and Ru with fiery eyes, as if trying to kill one or both of them. _

_"Kuzon…?" Li heard her voice shake, and took a step back, scared—no, terrified—of the emotions she saw on her little brother's face. Her kind, sweet, gentle little brother, who would pick fire lilies and present them to her, who had pronounced that he loved his sister more than anyone else in the world. Kuzon, her little dragon, who had died after Li practically abandoned him when she should have known better, when she should have remained with him or taken him with her, who was dead BECAUSE SHE HADN'T NOTICED ANYTHING WRONG…_

_"Why do you always pick Ru over me, sister?" Kuzon's voice was sweet, childish, but tainted with a hard edge that Li had heard before. In her mother's voice. In her own voice. "Why am I never the first one you run to? Why don't you love me as much as I love you?"_

_"Oh, Kuzon, I do, I _do_ love you!" Li protested, starting forward again only to be stopped by Ru's restraining hand on her shoulder. "Ru…? Let me go, Ru." Li turned her head slightly to look at her friend. "I…Ru, Kuzon is there…he's right there…he's not dead…"_

_"Li." Ru's voice came out strangled. "Kuzon is dead. You know that."_

_"No, he's standing right there." Li pointed at her brother in confusion. Ru nodded tersely, but her grip on Li only tightened. "Ru, let me go." Still no move to release her. "Ru, I…I _order_ you! As your Fire Lord, I am ordering you to _let go of me_!"_

_"I'm sorry, Fire Lord." Ru pulled Li back, away from Kuzon, her eyes never leaving the boy's face. "But Kuzon is dead. And that's his ghost."_

_"What? Impossible!" Li scoffed, now trying to pry Ru's hand from her shoulder. "If he's dead and that's his ghost, how come he's solid? Why can't I see through him? Why isn't he…glowing, or whatever it is Huo says spirits do? Hm?"_

_"He was called here as you remember him, Li." Ru said carefully. "Yue was explaining this to me before I found myself here. The ties between the body and soul aren't the only ties the soul has. There're also the ties between family, the ties between friends, the ties of love…that's what's brought him here. Li, your ties to Kuzon, of family and of love, called him from the Land of the Dead to this place!"_

_"What? Ru, no, just…no." Li felt tears begin to fill her eyes again, but now she denied them, trying to step away from Ru but held in place by her friend's hand on her shoulder. "Don't say that. Please. He's my little brother. He's not dead. He-he's standing there…right there…please, Ru…" Her voice cracked, and Li turned away from Ru as best she could. Wetness began to drip down her face, but she refused to accept the tears, closing her eyes tightly to block out the look on Ru's face._

_"Come with me, Li." Kuzon's voice suggested, and Li's eyes snapped wide as she turned to look at her brother. His hands were on his hips, and a smile that was eerily reminiscent of Meiko curved his lips. "We can play together again. Don't you want to play together?" He held out a small hand, already callused from his Firebending training, and began to look more like the Kuzon Li remembered. Happier: brighter: childishly innocent._

_"Yes, let's play together." Li cried, straining to take the hand, but Ru held her back._

_"No! You're not going to die! Not when I've just found you!" Panic threaded its way through Ru's voice, and Li jerked in surprise from it. The hand on her shoulder tightened, and Li felt herself being pulled back—pulled away from Kuzon._

_"NO!" Kuzon roared, leaping at Li. Her eyes widened at the expression on his face: brow scrunched in anger, lips drawn back from his teeth like a saber-tooth moose-lion about to attack, an inferno of rage evident in his eyes._

_Part of her registered Lithuania groggily awakening, pushing himself up from where he'd sprawled as he passed out. A small portion of her brain registered the scream, and knew others would hear it, others would come._

_But most of Li was focused on Kuzon. Because even as Ru tried to shove Li behind her, to protect her, the small boy reached her, arm outstretched. She nearly screamed herself as his hand entered her chest, passing through the flesh as if it wasn't even there, to come to rest around her rapidly-beating heart. He squeezed, and the pain was worse than when Meiko had slit her throat and Bended her blood out of her body._

_"You're mine, sister…" She heard him whisper before blacking out._

* * *

Li thought again of the look on her brother's face, the last thing she had seen before blacking out. Before Ru had been snatched away from her again. "Yue…what's going on here…" Li moaned, naming the one person she thought might know anything.

But she got no answer.


	13. Flowers

**Don't know when you'll get this. Fanfiction's being evil and not letting me update (current to when I'm writing this), so I don't know if you're getting this when you're supposed to (Wed, March 23rd) or sometime afterwards. Just have to wait and see, I suppose.**

**Also: don't own Hetalia. Or Avatar. Just Li. Who hates me. Kesesesesesese...**

* * *

The meeting had been formally ended, and now the nations were leaving in small groups while discussing whatever seemed most interesting to them. Not surprisingly, the main topic seemed to be Li.

"Do you think she's all right?" Lithuania asked again, peering over his shoulder towards the door that led to the hallway that led to the stairs that led to the second floor where Li was still alone in her room. He'd been worrying about her ever since Hungary had intercepted him and told him Li wanted to be alone.

"If she wants to be alone, we should leave her be." Germany sighed, straightening up his notes from the meeting. "Italy, what are you doing?"

"Ve~," Italy chirped, "I'm making paper flowers! See, Germany?" He held out a delicately-folded paper flower, which was clearly made from his meeting notes. "I've been working on them all day! Aren't they pretty?"

"Italy, why in the world would you make paper flowers out of your meeting notes?" Germany sighed, not expecting a reasonable answer. He'd known Italy long enough at this point to realize he wouldn't get one. So he was somewhat surprised by the answer.

"I made them for Li! She seems really sad, so I thought these might cheer her up!" Italy smiled innocently at his friend. "Don't you think they're pretty, Germany?"

"Uhh…well, yes, they are certainly very well made, but…" Germany lost his voice as he stared at the flowers. Italy truly was an artist, to have turned something so ordinary as his meeting notes into delicate flowers such as these. He insisted on only using colored paper for his notes, too, so the flowers were light shades of yellow and green and blue and pink.

"Yay! I'm going to go give them to her now!" Italy cheered, preparing to run off upstairs. Germany, whose friendship with Italy had given him a fast comprehension time and faster reflexes, managed to grab the northern half of the boot-shaped country before he could rush off.

"Nein! She…" Germany remembered the look in Li's eyes as she asked everyone to leave, the tone of her voice. "She needs to be alone for now. Please, leave her be, and give them to her later."

"Eh? But, Germany, Romano and I are leaving in an hour!" Italy protested. "And I don't wanna wait to give them to her! Don't you think they'll make her happy?" He gave Germany such an adorable puppy-dog look that for a moment, Germany actually was tempted to ignore the voice of reason and safety in the back of his head and let Italy go upstairs and give Li the paper flowers. But years of looking out for Italy, first during World War Two when the older nation had needed saving from everything, then later as the world progressed to the current day, had made Germany's protective instincts strong enough to overrule even the feared puppy-dog eyes.

"She needs to be alone. I don't think she'd do anything drastic, but when I left her room, she seemed to be…stretched thin." Germany thought his words over carefully. "I'm sorry, Italy, but you cannot disturb her. If you want, I'll deliver the flowers for you, but I think you should let her be alone for now."

"Oh…all right…" Italy hung his head in disappointment, but then brightened and thrust the flowers into Germany's arms. "I'd better get back to the hotel and grab my suitcase before Romano leaves without me! Bye Germany! I'll visit soon and make some pasta!" And at that, the human representation of the northern half of the country of Italy more or less skipped from the meeting room, singing an Italian love song, and leaving the human representation of the country of Germany holding an armful of beautiful paper flowers to be delivered to a woman who may or may not be an insane fighting machine.

One moment while the author laughs maniacally, please.

Germany allowed himself a second to wonder at Italy's ability to switch moods so rapidly, then shook himself out of it and carefully set the flowers on the table. Almost everyone had left the room now, all but Lithuania, Russia (who was lurking creepily near Lithuania and eyeing him with a disturbing interest, making the other nation tremble a bit in terror), Austria, Prussia, and Hungary. Since Germany would be sharing a plane the next day with Austria, Prussia, and Hungary on their way home (they would leave sooner, but getting an extra ticket for Li had proved tricky, and thus they were forced to stay another night), he beckoned them over.

"Do you think we should check in on her soon?" Hungary asked as soon as they were all standing together. "She sounded so miserable earlier…it couldn't have just been a bad dream, don't you think?"

"I will have to give her these later anyways." Germany sighed, gesturing to the paper flowers. "Italy made them, and he can't stay long enough for her to recover from whatever mood she's in, so he asked me to give them to her."

"Bringing a girl flowers, West?" Prussia joked, giving off his trademark "Kesesesese" laugh. "Aww. Cute. Just remember, if you wanna get laid, you have to—"

"Bruder!" Germany cut him off in horror. "I'm just giving these to her for Italy! Do not read more into it than there is!" To his further embarrassment, his brother waved a hand dismissively and continued to laugh. Austria looked extremely uncomfortable, but was refusing to say a word. Hungary, in stark contrast, was glowering at Prussia, her hand inching towards her purse.

"Well, I'm gonna head back to the room and watch a movie. Later, unawesome people." Gilbert gave a mock salute, then ran off before his brother could do anything more than simply stare, blush, and stammer madly.

"Does he even realize what's coming from his mouth, or is it all a constant buzz to him?" Austria wondered after a moment. He handed Germany a stack of paper—his notes, useless now—and turned to Hungary. "Since we have an extra night, and there happens to be an orchestra performing, would you care to accompany me?"

"I'd love to!" Hungary exclaimed enthusiastically, face lighting up. Austria offered her his arm, the picture of the noble gentleman, and she accepted it gracefully. The only mar to the scene was when Prussia stuck his head back into the room and shouted something about who should be escorting who, to be met with a furious Hungary and her much-feared frying pan. She was followed by a mildly worried Austria, who excused them to Germany before walking after her at a leisurely pace.

Leaving Germany alone with his own notes, Austria's notes, Italy's flowers, and time to kill.

They really were exquisitely done, Germany admitted to himself, looking at the flowers once again. He almost thought he knew what Italy had done, a fold here, a crease there, crinkling the paper up just so…and Italy was so nonchalant about it, couldn't be too hard to make them. Without thinking too much about it, Germany took a piece of paper and began to mimic the flowers as best he could.

It was not as easy as Italy had made it seem. Perhaps he had the flowers to go by, but without unfolding one to see how it had been made in reverse, trial and error was all he had. And it was telling him that he was not very good at this. Yes, the flowers were there if he cared to undo one…but they were so beautiful, he couldn't bring himself to do it. So instead, he continued his attempts, and finally found himself with one acceptable paper flower.

Needless to say, it was not nearly as beautiful as Italy's. But it was acceptable, to Germany at least. The petals weren't as graceful as Italy's, and it was more compact, less open. He'd used a sheet of plain white paper to make it, but lines of printed ink on the paper streaked the petals with black. If it wasn't next to Italy's multicolored flowers, which had only pencil writing on them, it might even be called pretty.

"Germany?" Lithuania, who had disappeared at some point prior, stuck his head in the door. "It's getting late. Don't you have to return to your hotel?"

"Hm?" Germany looked up in surprise, then glanced out a window. The sun was starting to set, but gray clouds obscured half of what might otherwise be a beautiful sunset. "Oh, yes. I have to give Li the flowers Italy made."

"He made those?" Lithuania walked over, and looked at the flowers critically. "Um…some of these aren't as well-made as they usually are…"

"Those are mine." Germany flushed a little, quickly grabbing all of the flowers off of the table. He shoved his flowers into a nearby trashcan, and adjusted the ones in his arms before continuing. "I-I must deliver these for Italy. Please excuse me while I do that, and then I will leave for my hotel. Austria and I will return in the morning for Li."

"Okay." Lithuania seemed a bit glum at the prospect of Li leaving, either because she was distracting Russia from tormenting him or because he genuinely liked the girl. Germany would have bet on both, because Lithuania had spent a while with Li earlier. Even if he hadn't been around to see the vulnerable side Li had, accidentally or otherwise, shown Germany, Lithuania himself had faced horrors at Russia's hands. Him and Li probably had something in common.

As Germany walked out of the meeting room, down the hallway, towards the staircase, he allowed himself a chance to think about what Li must be feeling. She had lied about her past, obviously, but some things seemed out of place. For instance, she had called herself "Li Wu of the Fire Nation" the first time she had woken up after arriving in Russia's house, when she was partially delirious and likely still half-asleep. What reason could she have had for lying then?

So she was telling the truth about her country. But when she had said it was "small," she had hesitated over her words, and refused to make eye contact with anyone. That put some serious doubts in Germany's mind as to her sincerity on that point. But he had never before met a "Fire Nation," and despite being the youngest of the nations (official nations, at least), he had met pretty much all of the other nations.

Could it be a cult? That thought stopped Germany at the top of the stairs. Cults did not have human representatives, and tended to seclude themselves from others. If Li was from a cult, it would explain her reluctance to speak about her past, her confusion over common technology and current events, and it might even help explain her disturbing arrival. Some sort of cult ritual gone wrong, leaving her abandoned in the snow? And she had said she was a fugitive: perhaps a disagreement amongst members of the cult had resulted in her and some friends fleeing?

All that presented a plausible, reasonable explanation. Li was from a cult. Likely she had been born to it, or she would have some knowledge of the outside world, but a cult it must have been. That she had dared to oppose the leader's ideas and flee endeared her to Germany somewhat: he knew what it was like to have a crazy boss. It also explained other things, like her scars, her unwillingness to be touched. Cults had been made infamous by the abuses some inflicted on people, both their followers and others. Attempting to leave would have brought down the wrath of the leader on Li, resulting in whatever punishments he thought fitting.

But something about the cult theory didn't sit well with Germany. The pieces fit together, but they seemed forced, bent out of shape and misaligned. He would have to investigate the matter. There were government records of known cults, international archives he could dig into, experts he could phone to ask for advice and help… "Ich brauche nicht dieses Recht jetzt." Germany muttered to himself. It was a huge task, especially with all the things he had to do already for his job. He might have to recruit someone else to help him…

Li's room. He started walking again, trying to think up a plan of action for investigating cults in search of this "Fire Nation" Li claimed she was from. There were experts around the world he could phone, and based on what he knew from Li already he was fairly certain he could narrow down the parameters of a search in his country's files, as well as the international resources available to him. Perhaps he could gain more information from Li now?

Germany stood in front of her door, arms filled with paper flowers, wondering how to enter. He didn't want to simply barge in—what if she was changing, or not there, or any of a number of reasons that might bring embarrassment or anger or pain? But he'd promised Italy he'd deliver the flowers… Shaking off his doubts, Germany shifted the flowers to one arm, raised a hand, and knocked loudly.

"Li! May I come in?" He called.

"Okay…" A voice from inside the room answered. Germany reached for the doorknob, but before he could it turned and the door opened. Li peeked to see who it was, then opened the door fully and gestured for him to come in. Her eyes lingered on the flowers with suspicion, and Germany felt the need to explain them before she got the wrong idea about them. After all, Italy had made them, not him. He shouldn't take credit for Italy's work.

"Italy made you these." Germany said quickly, going to the vanity and laying them out. "He asked me to give them to you, since he had to leave and nobody wanted to disturb you. He sends his regards, and hopes that you will like them."

"They're nice." Li said offhandedly, going over and picking up a flower. She examined it with a critical eye, then frowned. "What are these markings on the paper?"

"Oh, he made the flowers from his meeting notes." Germany replied, a bit of annoyance surging within him. "Instead of paying attention and contributing, he made those. I don't think he had anything else to work with, though if he was planning on making flowers he should have gotten different paper. Although it was more likely a spur of the moment decision."

"What do they say?" Li held the flower out to Germany, looking curious. "I can't read it."

"Hm…this one appears to be from his notes on tariffs." Germany squinted to read the terrible handwriting. "Yes, it's talking about how he wants to raise taxes on imports from South America."

"South?" Li scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. "America…is two people? Or do you mean his lower body?" She blushed slightly at the mental image that resulted, and shook her head a bit to clear it. "S-so, um, what?"

"Oh…nein, uh, America only represents one country on North America." Germany hurried to explain. "His full name is the United States of America, but he is usually just called America because it's easier to say than his full name, or the abbreviation of U.S.A. Other countries exist south of him, on the continent of North America and South America, and also on the thin area of land connecting the two continents called Central America." He paused to think over what he had just said, and spoke again. "I will explain tomorrow with a map."

"Oh. Okay." Li seemed a bit confused, not to mention surprised. There was a beat in the conversation, then, "So, how many continents are there?"

She didn't even know basic geography? How sheltered was this girl? Germany allowed his surprise to show as he answered, "Seven official continents. But only six are regularly occupied. The seventh, Antarctica, is centered around the South Pole, so nobody lives there. It's much too cold." Some brief emotion flickered over Li's face, there and gone before Germany could place it. He thought part of it might be disbelief, but why would that be?

"I see." She turned back to the flowers, idly sifting through them, and picked one up without seeming to think about it. But the moment she noticed which one it was, she gave a small yelp and dropped it on the floor. Germany, who hadn't been paying attention to the flowers she was looking at, took a glance at the one she'd dropped and felt his heart stop.

It was the one he'd made.

Li was willing to bet they didn't have panda lilies here in this world, because Italy would have known not to make the flower look like one if they did exist here. It was a beautiful flower, really, done like the others in the shape of a rose. But the one difference was that where the others were made of colored paper in light shades of blue, green, yellow, lilac, etc., this one was pure white with black stripes of writing (at least Li assumed it was writing, because the symbols were like no characters she had ever seen before) extending down each petal.

A cross between a panda lily and a rose. Both were considered romantic flowers: both were flowers Li liked, not for the symbolism but for their beauty and their smell. Neither were her favorite flower, that status was reserved for the fire lily, which bloomed only once a year in the Fire Nation. But unless she bought them from a flower merchant herself, it was completely inappropriate for Li to receive either a rose or a fire lily from someone else, even her family.

Because in the Fire Nation nobility, you always began a courtship by giving a girl a flower, either a rose or a panda lily, or sometimes a fire lily, if they were in season.

Well, they couldn't know that here. Italy couldn't have known that. So there was really no reason for her not to keep it. For the spirits' sake, it wasn't even a real flower! It was made of paper! Li wasn't sure what the precedent for that was, but she was pretty sure it wouldn't count for beginning a courtship.

Then again, she was royalty. Things for her were different. If she so much as flirted with a boy (not that she would, she had yet to find one she liked), the consequences could be enormous. Her honor was a delicate thing—what might be said as a friendly joke could be heard by a servant, blown out of proportion, and turned into a national political scandal. Were her father's advisors back home to hear of this incident…she could almost hear them clamoring for the head of the one who made this flower.

That's what decided Li. She would keep the flower. Part of it was just in spite of her own status, her own personal rebellion against the rules and restrictions of her upbringing, a rebellion only she would ever know of. Another part of it was that she genuinely liked the flower, despite its connotations in her home, and she wanted to keep such a pretty thing.

"Er…I'm very sorry." Germany apologized, bending over to pick up the flower. He straightened and began to say, "You see, Italy—"

Li took the flower from him without saying a word, smiling at it softly. "It's all right." She reassured Germany. "I was just startled when I saw its coloring. It looks like a panda lily-rose, don't you think?" Holding the rose up between them, Li felt a small smile creep across her face. This was definitely her favorite of all the flowers so far. It wasn't quite as well-made, meaning it had probably been the first Italy made before perfecting his folds, but Li thought she liked that about it too. That this…"panda-rose" wasn't quite as perfect as the other flowers.

"I'm afraid I don't know what a panda lily is…" Germany admitted, shifting nervously. His face seemed a bit flushed, and his hands were clasped firmly behind his back. "Is it from the Fire Nation?"

"N—uh, yup." Li turned quickly to hide her wince from Germany, but was afraid he might catch it anyways. Just how stupid was she, almost revealing the existence of the other three Nations like that? So far they only knew of the Fire Nation, and Li intended to keep it that way. She'd only let the Fire Nation's existence slip because she didn't understand the situation she was in. Now that she knew a few things about their world, she couldn't be talking about the Earth Kingdom, vast as it was, or the Water Tribes at the Poles, or even the Air Nomads in their temples! Germany had said nobody lived on one of this world's continents because it was at the South Pole—in Li's own world, the South Pole was home to the Southern Water Tribe, still on the path to recovery after its near destruction at the hands of the Fire Nation 150 years ago.

She couldn't see Germany's reaction, but his next words were tinged with an edge of what Li thought might be suspicion, or distrust. "I see. What do they look like?"

"Oh, you know what normal lilies are like, I assume." Li turned back around quickly, trying to seem as open and cheerful as she could. "Like those in shape, only their petals are white and have black stripes down the middle. The…writing on this flower looks a bit like that." She traced a line of symbols, and smiled at a vague memory. "My friend loves them, can't get enough. They're really rare, though, the second rarest in the world—well, maybe not, I guess." She avoided Germany's eyes. "Since apparently there's a lot I don't know."

"You do seem to have lived a sheltered life." Germany offered. Li looked him in the eyes now, thankful for the concession. Maybe he would stop digging for more information about her and simply let her be. It was doubtful, but she could hope…

As if. She wasn't exactly giving them much reason to trust her, was she? Lying at almost every turn, evading questions, throwing people into walls or through windows…if her group of friends, jokingly dubbed Team Avatar, had ever met a person acting like she was now, someone would have killed that person the first time she attacked, not allowed her to live to attack them again and again and then lie to them. These people were a lot more trusting than her friends—a lot more trusting than her, it seemed. No, definitely more trusting than her.

Li began to feel an odd, heavy sensation in her gut. She was thinking like a prisoner, judging these people like they were her jailors, when they were only trying to help her. Lithuania, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Italy, even Russia and America…they were only trying to help her, however they could. And look how she'd repaid them. Lies and suspicion and violence.

"This is really different." She said abruptly, not sure why the words were coming out of her mouth. Words came to her, wanting to be said, but she dismissed them because they made no sense, not even to her. "Umm, what I mean is…this place. It's…it's nothing like my home. Like how I've been living lately." Her eyes trailed down to the floor, and she spoke softly. "I'm sorry. I haven't been the greatest guest here, have I?"

"Was?" Germany blinked, seemingly taken aback by her sudden statement. "Ah…it's understandable. You arrived in such a way that would naturally make you suspicious. And there really is no reason for you to trust us, as none of us have ever met you before, and you know virtually nothing about us."

"That still doesn't excuse how I've been acting." Li insisted stubbornly. "I'm a guest here. But I've managed to attack a fair number of people, be extremely rude to pretty much everyone—including you—and I…I've been…" Her throat closed in on itself as panic set in. She desperately wanted to admit everything, to explain what was going on and just tell Germany everything about her. But she couldn't. Ru would never forgive her. Even if they weren't hostile, wouldn't telling them only drag them into her own problems, to some degree? Most of them would want to help her, judging by how they had treated her so far. And her problems were her own problems, and she could deal with them by herself, her and her group.

Germany seemed to understand that she couldn't bear to speak anymore, and stood in front of her, awkward, looking as if he would like to do something but had no idea what to do. It actually reminded Li of Ru, a little, because her friend wasn't good with emotions. Fighting, oh yes, Ru could disable an opponent, wound, maim, kill, all of these. She could strategize and plan and ration. But emotions, emotions were what threw Ru off the most. The few times Li had allowed herself to cry in front of Ru before this whole event began, her friend had been awkward, trying to hug Li and pat her back and tell her it would be okay like she saw others do. Coming from Ru, it was always enough. The thought of Germany trying it, though…

Li still wasn't looking him in the eye. She realized she was clutching the flower tightly, and relaxed her grip, hoping she hadn't damaged it, not permanently at least. It didn't look like it was, but she couldn't be sure—Li's experiences with paper didn't involve folding. Reading, writing, certainly those, and burning of course. A lot more burning of late than ever before. Definitely not any folding though.

The silence, which had been awkward after only a moment, was starting to get unbearable as seconds ticked by. Li made up her mind to end it at the same time as Germany.

"I think—" She began at the same time as Germany attempted to say, "So—" They both paused for a moment, and their eyes met. Li blinked a couple times before her usual reaction to looking into someone's eyes kicked in. She began to giggle. Then it was Germany's turn to be confused, watching as she had to sit down, she was laughing so hard.

"Was ist lustig?" Germany finally managed to get out. Li forced her laughter to slow, then stop, and she looked up at him with a small grin on her face. Realizing she hadn't understood him, he translated it for her. "What's so funny?

"I don't know." She shook her head. "But it's been a while since I laughed like that. I think it was overdue." Her grin faded as her mind went over the past week's events. The North Pole. Meiko. Seeing her blood flowing out of her, blood she knew would be used to heal Ru. Waking up here. Her series of brief awakenings, each giving her more information, until she finally woke up on the third day of being here to get out of bed and do something productive. The meeting earlier today. Throwing America through a window, then fleeing. Seeing Ru. Losing Ru. Dreaming of Ru. Ru.

Ru…

The all-too-familiar pang of loss hit Li's chest hard, and she turned away from Germany to mask how she bit her lip, an attempt to bring her emotions under control. Not that it worked, but she was able to get out a, "It's getting late. You should go to wherever you're staying. I'll see you in the morning." He paused, but seemed to realize she wanted to be alone and left.

Li made her way to the bed and curled up on it, feeling the unfamiliar materials of the sheets and blankets and pillows. It struck her, at last, that this place was not home, was not the Four Nations. That she didn't know when, if ever, she would see her home again. When she would see Ru again.

She slipped off into blissful, dreamless sleep.


	14. Departure

**Here we go! Chapter...15, now! It got kinda long, I know...**

**I do not own Hetalia or Avatar.**

* * *

"I'm going to miss you." Lithuania told Li, looking at the small bag she was using to carry the clothing she'd borrowed. "I know I'll see you, but you're probably going to be really busy at Austria's. Promise you'll pick up the phone if I call?"

"Yes, I promise." Li smiled softly. She hadn't known what a telephone was until after a lengthy explanation by Lithuania earlier that morning, and the thought of being able to speak to someone else as if they were right in the room with her still amazed her. The technology in this world was so different from her own, which functioned mostly with clockwork and steam power. It was both frightening in what it could accomplish and puzzling in that Li had no idea what half of the buttons she saw did. At least with her own nation's technology (the most advanced in her world) she knew that most buttons, when pressed, would result in explosions or copious amounts of steam billowing from a newly-broken contraption. And she always pushed the wrong button.

It had been about five days since Li's arrival. She had been informed it was now Saturday, the seventh day of the week for this world's calendar. Since the meeting was officially over now, most of the nations had left the previous night. Austria had been forced to delay their departure due to needing to get Li a ticket on an "airplane," which Lithuania had described to Li earlier. Flying machines that didn't need gas balloons, like Fire Nation airships did—it was incredible to think of! A large part of her was itching to get a good look at one of them up close, maybe acquire a set of schematics for her friends at home to go over so they could replicate the designs.

"You should get downstairs. They'll be here any moment." Lithuania sighed ruefully, looking around Li's for anything they might have missed. Russia had been very generous in giving Li his little sister's old clothing, and any article she might need for travel. While Austria's land was (apparently) fairly close, compared to some of the other countries' homes, Li was equipped for a three-night stay in a hotel, or even on the plane itself.

"Thank you, Lithuania." Li bowed to the nation, startling him a bit. Well, even if his customs were different, she wouldn't neglect this. "I owe you my life. If you ever need anything, anything at all, I will come when asked. Don't hesitate to call in that favor." She straightened, and looked up a few inches into Lithuania's eyes. "You and the others. Pass it on." Her mouth curled up on one side, and a thought occurred to her. "Oh, uh, but, it doesn't apply to becoming one with Russia. Seriously, that's taking it a bit far. What does he even mean by that line anyways?"

"It's best not to think about it." Lithuania advised, ushering Li out of the room that had been, up til now, hers. They walked down the hall, descended a staircase, and followed another hallway along a route Li hadn't taken before to a large room. Two huge doors at one end told Li this must be the entrance, the formal one at least: Lithuania had taken her to the kitchen yesterday morning, and she had seen a door to the outside there as well. Not that she had gone: no, Li had not left the familiar wing of this mansion where she was staying in all the time she had been here.

It was an impressive room, to be certain. Though she entered from a small, fairly well-hidden door near one of the corners of the room, she could see a grand, sweeping staircase directly across from the ornate doors. Carpeted in red, made of fine white stone, it curved into two separate staircases about a third of the way up, one opening onto a balcony on the second floor, the other spiraling up another level to lead to an imposing door in the wall of the third floor. High above, a crystal chandelier sparkled in the light from the glassed-in roof.

Nobles, kings and queens, princes and princesses, generals and admirals and commanders, all would have passed through this place at some point. Li, as a princess, was used to such grandeur, but the foreign design made her catch her breath. Why had nobody from her own world thought of such beautiful designs as these? Certainly, they had their own marvels: the Throne Room in the Fire Nation Palace, the Palace of Ba Sing Se, the three hills of Omashu, the Air Temples, the Earth Temple hidden deep within the mountains…but Li had seen those places before, and they all followed the styles Li had seen all her life. This, however: this was something new, something different, a style Li hadn't been raised with. It was breathtaking.

Lithuania saw her stare, and mistook it for awe at the importance of the place. "You know, some of Russia's leaders have said this is the most beautiful place they've ever seen?" He whispered to Li, tugging her sleeve to make her follow him towards the doors. Nobody else was around, but Li thought she might hear footsteps approaching from the second floor.

Yes—there was Russia, striding towards the stairs, followed by Estonia and Lithuania. He wore his customary scarf, with a long, tan coat. That creepy little smile was plastered across his face, contrasting with the slight purple haze of his aura about him. Li forced herself not to shiver as he reached the railing that ran along the second-floor balcony.

"Germany called half an hour ago to let me know they would be coming about now." Russia called to Li. "I thought I would wait with you for them to get here. Apparently Prussia and Hungary will meet you at the airport, as Prussia had too much luggage to fit more than two people into one of their rentals." He paused, and Li wondered what in the world a rental was. "Oh, there was also something I wished to discuss with you." As if knowing what would come next, Estonia and Latvia vanished. Lithuania stood his ground next to Li until Russia gave him a strange look, one that sent him running.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Li asked, hoping her nervousness at being left alone with the scary nation wasn't showing. He slowly began to descend the stairs, taking his time with each step, until he stood at the bottom. Li's eyes darted about, noting doors, arches, windows, all possible escape routes. But she stood her ground, unwilling to make a run for it when he hadn't actually done anything threatening. Yet.

"Well, upon your arrival, there is one thing I did not mention to the others." Russia started to walk over to Li, as casually as if they were in a crowd of people and he had just recognized her. "The Baltics did not see anything—I obliterated it as soon as they approached. But the blood in the snow around you was splattered in a pattern. One I thought you might recognize, as it surely has some sort of significance." He held out a hand, and Li saw the piece of folded paper clenched in it. She accepted it, hesitant.

"Why didn't you let the others see it?" She asked him as she started to unfold the paper, looking up at him but not quite daring to rest her eyes on his face.

"Because it interested me, and I didn't want anyone else to know of it." Russia shrugged. His blond-beige hair brushed the tops of his eyes, and he shook his head slightly to move it out of the way. Li stopped moving for a second, wondering what in the world he could mean, before looking down at the piece of paper.

Her eyes widened. Her heart skipped a beat, then began to thump rapidly in her ears. Her mouth dried out. Her stomach, previously behaving so well, suddenly staged a violent revolution. The paper crinkled as she tightened her grip on it instinctively, trying to prevent her hands from shaking like leaves as she stared at the symbol.

A circle, divided into four sections. One quarter held three wavy lines and three spirals, the emblem of the Water Tribes, fitted into the semi-triangular section. Counter clockwise from it was a square, with a circle inside of it, based on the national symbol of the Earth Kingdom, and from which their coins were modeled. Across from that section was a simple spiral, symbolic of the Air Nomads. And the final quarter…it held a tulip-like design, a spiral extending three lazy "petals" upwards into the air.

Nobody that wasn't from the Four Nations would know the meaning behind this. But everybody from her world knew just what it was. What it represented.

The Tóngyī ShÌjiè.

Li's mind raced. Why had their symbol been strewn across the snow where she was found? "Where—what part of the symbol was I on?" Li asked Russia shakily, trying to keep the waver she felt from finding its way to her voice. Without speaking a word, Russia tapped the lower left-hand quarter. The Fire Nation's quarter. "Ah…thank you…"

The Tóngyī ShÌjiè's emblem written on the snow in blood. Li herself, dressed in Fire Nation clothing, lying in the quarter of the emblem that symbolized the Fire Nation. Yue saying her soul had been sent to another world by a mysterious spirit.

Who had done this to her?

What did they want?

Why couldn't she have just died like she was supposed to?

No, get away from that train of thought, now. There was clearly some sort of reason for doing this—it wasn't as if a spirit would lay down the very emblem of fear in the Four Nations simply to mess with Li's head! Now, if it had been one of her friends, she would have understood the joke and laughed it off, the cruel humor involved more or less a regular feature in her group. They were all afraid, after all. And they needed to cope with that fear somehow. So they joked around, made light of the situation, while they all knew that they were scared to death. Scared _of_ death.

"I see you recognize it." Russia's voice snapped Li back to reality. She flinched away from him, eyes raising to his in surprise and fear. He raised his eyebrows slightly at her expression, then took a slow step back, hands open. "It disturbs you." Not a question.

"This…" Li didn't know the words to convey just how terrified she was of this symbol. Of what it represented, what it _meant_. "It's…from my homeland."

"Da, I see." Russia nodded. "I had thought so. And you are afraid simply to see it. It has meaning, and it frightens you." Li felt a tremor quake through her hands as Russia spoke. How could he know? How could he understand so easily? "You were hunted, hunted by your people. Then this, I believe, must be the symbol of the new government of your people."

"Y-yes…" Li's voice quivered, high from tension and fear.

"Strange, though. There are four different sections to this circle." Russia's voice became oilier, smoother, gliding from his throat like a snake over grass. "That would imply that there are four different groups involved. Are they political groups? Religious? Perhaps…cultural?" Li could almost hear the question he wasn't asking. _Are they nations?_

"They rep—they represent the four groups that make up the nation." Li forced the words out, brain scrambling for a convincing lie. Nothing came to her. She prayed Russia wouldn't ask about these made-up "groups"…

"Really? Tell me about them, da? We have some time." Russia's smile grew slightly sinister, and Li cursed the spirits. They really didn't like her. Although, considering what kept happening with her and sacred places (those fires were an accident, she swore, and the Earth Temple? The structure was unsound anyways. She just found out before everyone else. That she had cackled maniacally was only due to the cactus juice she _knew_ the Avatar had spiked her tea with, despite his many protests to the contrary) it wasn't too surprising.

"Umm, well, uhh…" Li's voice trailed off, and her brain simply shut down. Russia nodded slowly, then took the paper back from her and stowed it in a pocket.

"There is more to things than meets the eye, da?" He softened a bit, which may or may not have been meant to make Li relax. It didn't help, though, because him being nice only confirmed to Li that something bad was about to happen. "I will offer you a deal. This is our secret. No one else shall know, as I will not tell, and I do not think you will either. Does this sound acceptable?"

"Yes…please…" Li didn't think she could move, she was so scared. What did Russia want from her? Simply to know the truth? Or did he want her help in something? She just wanted to be somewhere safe where she could wait for Ru to return and take her home. Whatever the politics of this world involved, she had no intention of getting mixed up in them, because she wouldn't be here much longer. Ru would come, locate Li, and they would go home. A week, two tops.

Russia tilted his head slightly, and a smile spread across his face. "I can hear the car." He said softly. "They're here." Just then, Li's ears picked up the faintest of sounds of machinery from outside. Puzzled—it sounded like nothing from the Fire Nation—she turned to look out the huge windows situated on either side of the doors. It was snowing, but she still got a very clear view of a vehicle of some kind approaching Russia's home.

"Th-then…" Li stopped speaking as Russia leaned down. He was approaching the bubble of personal space. He was in the bubble of personal space. He was _in the bubble of personal space_…

"I will keep your secret, da. And you will remember that later." He whispered in her ear. Li was frozen, too scared to attack this man without the sheer adrenaline of her first awakening egging her on, but completely uncomfortable with him in her personal space. The scent of ice and snow and old, dry blood drifted from him. She heard voices outside, the slam of a door shutting, and then there was a polite knock on the door to the outside. Russia drew back and turned to the grand wooden structures, leaving Li to recover herself in the few seconds she had before the others entered.

The door opened, and a blast of cold burst into the building. Li squeaked in surprise, and clutched her arms about herself to keep warm. You would think that Firebenders, being able to heat their bodies automatically, would be less susceptible to the cold than normal people. Wrong. Cold affected Firebenders negatively, cutting them off from their warm _chi_ and preventing them from Bending. If you threw a Firebender outside without giving them adequate protection, they'd lose the ability to Bend for up to a month. For Li, both the thought of not being able to Bend and the cold itself kept her either safely inside (and near a fire) or bundled up to the extreme.

"How cold is it out there?" She yelped before remembering she wasn't with Team Avatar anymore. "Er, I mean…same thing, only maybe sounding nicer?" She rubbed her arms quickly, trying to preserve heat. "Please get in and close that door!"

"Sorry." Germany hastily stepped inside, followed by Austria. Both nations had thick coats of some odd material, as well as scarves and some odd contraptions that covered their ears and looked like something you might find in the Water Tribes.

"That is all of your luggage?" Austria looked at the small bag sitting next to Li on the floor. "I had thought you might have…more." Germany gave him a stern look, and the other nation seemed to realize that Li hadn't had anything with her upon her…arrival. "Oh. Of course. Forgive me."

"Umm…so, thank you for letting me stay in your house, Russia." Li bowed solemnly to the taller nation, still scared from the conversation of mere moments ago. She didn't want to say the next words, customary for the Fire Nation, but politeness won out over fear. "I hope to one day return your kindness."

"Da, I'm sure you will." Russia's tone made Li's blood freeze, and she couldn't suppress a small shiver. "But, your plane should leave soon, da? You must go now. I will see you at the next world meeting." Li's brow furrowed, and she gave a questioning look to Germany and Austria. Russia noticed, and his grin widened. "Oh, didn't you know? After you separated America and China, several of us nations held a vote, and decided to have you attend the next world meeting as well. It's in a month, so if you don't see us until then, you can at least know you'll be there!"

"O-oh…okay…" Li hesitated. A month. Well, she wouldn't be here that long. Why not placate the nation? "All right, I'll see you in a month. Please pass my regards along to the others, Lithuania and Latvia and Estonia."

"I will." Russia smiled creepily. Li picked up her baggage and walked sideways towards Germany and Austria, not wanting to turn her back on the tall man for fear something would happen. What, she didn't know. She just knew she did not want to give him an opening.

Germany was holding a bundle of deep purple and black fabric that turned out to be a coat. He offered it to Li, who struggled into it awkwardly, then stared at the front, wondering how to close it. It was too big for her in the first place, and clearly made for a man—probably Germany, Li decided. That she was wearing his old coat (no, wait…the one he was in now seemed more beat-up than this one) seemed a bit awkward to Li, as it brought to mind memories of her original coat, and her first extremely embarrassing awakening. Thankfully, her brief exposure to the cold had turned her face red, and her fierce blush went unnoticed.

Austria noticed her dilemma, and sighed. "You do the zipper up." He pulled a metal device on the front of his coat down, and it opened. "Like this." After a quick demonstration, Li had (more or less) learned how to work the zipper. Germany had taken her bag, and she glanced up towards the second floor, where she thought she could see the Baltics watching from behind an archway. She smiled, and turned to the two waiting nations.

"Okay, I'm ready." She said politely. "Let's go." Germany nodded, and opened the door.

Outside, it was freezing. Li shivered as the merciless cold hit her, and tried to adjust her chi to warm herself up. The coat insulated her body heat rather well, but she had warmed up to uncomfortable levels before realizing it. She could remove the coat, but the wind was freezing her exposed skin quickly, and the zipper would be hard to work anyways. So Li pulled the hood up and tried to pass the warmth centered around her torso into her face and limbs.

An odd machine, sleek and covered in shiny dark green paint, sat on a snow-clear section of concrete. There were windows along the upper half, and Li could see that most of the back was filled with various bags and containers. Germany opened a door in the middle and carefully placed Li's bag in, then stepped aside and gestured towards the empty seat.

"What _is_ that thing?" Li frowned at the machine in suspicion. It was drastically different from anything she'd seen in the Fire Nation. Even in her world's technology capital, machinery was large, bulky, and covered with steel sheets. Though they were able to color the metal, that odd, shiny sheen on Germany and Austria's machine—a "rental"?—seemed like it had been painted on.

"It's our car. It's only a rental from the airport, but it functions quite nicely." Austria answered. "It's also not as big as Germany's van, but we're making do."

"Okay…" Li made her way to the "car" cautiously, as if it was about to eat her. Which, considering it was a machine, was probably stupid, but she wouldn't put anything past the spirit that had sent her here and splattered the Tóngyī ShÌjiè symbol on the snow around her. It either wanted her scared, dead, or was laughing its head off at her right now. Li prayed it was the last.

Germany offered her a hand to steady herself, but Li ignored it and climbed into the vehicle carefully. It was taller than her, and about twice her length, but the inside was smaller than the outside and mostly filled with bags. Apparently it was mostly Austria's, as Germany commented on the sheer amount of things the aristocrat seemed to need on a trip while climbing into a seat at the front.

"I can drive." Austria offered half-heartedly, taking the other seat. Germany sat behind a wheel, with several knobs and such situated near it. He shuddered at Austria's offer, and shook his head. The aristocrat sighed and pulled out a scroll.

Inside the car was much warmer than outside, but the biting chill still remained. Li decided it was safe to take off the coat, but kept it arranged around her shoulders in case the warmth of the car dissipated and she needed to put it back on. Plus…she would not admit this to anyone, but the coat smelled _really good_. The scents of factories, iron and forges, mixed with the smell of a bakery and the slightest tang of alcohol, simply radiated from the fabric. She was tempted to bury her nose into it, but they would have surely noticed, and Li didn't think it would help her standing in their eyes.

Li instead opted to stare out the window, trying to take in the scenery. It was her first time outside in days, and she had to admit she was extremely curious about Russia's homeland. If his house was any indication, it would be like nothing Li had ever seen before.

The first few minutes of the drive, getting off of Russia's property, mostly just showed Li a bunch of flat, snowy ground. Perhaps when it warmed up there would be spacious green lawns, or even flower beds full of whatever blooms were native to this land. But for now, it wasn't very different from the tundra of the North Pole, where Li had last been outside at. Hopefully, this "airport" would be more exciting…

"We're about to enter Moscow." Austria informed Li as the car approached a huge wall that apparently encircled Russia's house, enclosing it from the rest of the world. There was a creaking sound as two huge, probably very old, iron gates swung open to allow the car passage. And then Li had her first look at Russia's city.

"Spirits…" She murmured, eyes wide with fascination and curiosity. Moscow looked nothing like the cities of her world, or none she had visited at least. Ba Sing Se had houses clustered together, with barely any space in between, or houses with extensive gardens and verdant lawns. The Fire Nation Capitol had huge, three or more story buildings, all home to nobility and officials, all made of metal and various other construction materials. At the Northern Water Tribe, she had seen imposing structures made entirely of ice, some of the richer homes reinforced with expensive stone or wood.

None of them had anything on Moscow. Towers topped with onion-like roofs soared into the sky, colored in lovely earth tones that gave them an almost otherworldly feel. Li could see less impressive buildings, more square and uniform, made of colorless materials, a ways off, but she was too distracted by the grand palaces before her.

"Russia's house has its good points." Austria told Li, sounding grudging. "Nobody doubts it is very beautiful. But try to remember what its resident is like."

"Huh?" Li, who hadn't been paying attention, tore her gaze from Russia's beautiful city to glance at Austria. "You say somethin'?" Austria considered repeating himself, but decided it wasn't worth it and shook his head no. Too distracted by the architecture of the buildings to care, Li turned her attention back to the outside, practically pressing her nose to the glass in her eagerness to see all she could. Tourism had never been one of her hobbies, but seeing Moscow, Li was starting to wonder if maybe she could ask someone to show her around if she ever came back. Hopefully she would come back: she wanted to see this place in more detail, and not while inside a car on her way out of the city.

"We're at the Sheremetyevo International Airport." Germany called over his shoulder, and took a turn. Li saw a large building of glass and metal and other, unidentifiable materials a short ways off. It occurred to her that she had no idea how long the ride had been, and she voiced the question.

"Hm? Well, we left Russia's house at 11:24, and now it's…" Austria peered at something on his wrist, and frowned. "Germany, my watch is broken."

"I'll fix it when we're inside." Germany assured his fellow nation, pulling up to a guard station and handing the man inside some money. Li was puzzled. Did the guards here need to be bribed to let people in? If so, what was the point of having them here in the first place, since they seemed all too happy to allow vehicles to pass? They must make a lot of money, too, since there were dozens of cars around, and more coming and going.

Germany stopped the car in front of a section of the building, and climbed out. Li realized that this must be where they entered, and quickly opened her door. The cold blasted her, and she cursed under her breath while fumbling back into the coat. She knew better than to try warming herself up again—for whatever reason, her chi was creating more warmth with less effort than it ever had before, and using it to warm herself would undoubtedly only make her more uncomfortable in the long run. So she zipped up the nice-smelling coat and swung her legs out of the vehicle.

"Can you hand me some of those bags?" Germany requested, coming around to Li's side of the car. She nodded, and leaned back into the car to grab two bags from the top of the stack. Setting them on her lap, she reached back in and took out two more, then handed them all to Germany. He set them on the ground—to Austria's protest—and walked towards a bunch of carts near the door.

"Where are Hungary and Prussia?" Austria looked around, tone disapproving. "They said they would meet us at this door." No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the sound of frantic yelling could be heard from around a corner of the building.

"Help! Help! Madwoman! Help!" Prussia screamed, darting around the corner and hiding behind an outcropping in the building. Hungary skidded around the same corner, a frying pan held tightly in her hand and a deathly glare in her eyes. She scanned the scene for Prussia, who was hidden from her view, and brandished the frying pan threateningly. Li not-so-subtly slammed the car door shut for protection.

"H-Hungary! Good day!" Austria stammered nervously. "Y-you are looking for Prussia? Has he done something?" His tone indicated he expected nothing less. Unfortunately for him, Hungary turned her Glare of Death on the aristocratic nation.

"_Yes_." She growled, looking like she was about to whack Austria with the frying pan, instead of the currently-out-of-sight Prussia. A curious rattling noise came from behind a pillar, but Hungary paid no heed to it. Germany decided this would be a good time to seek shelter too, and busied himself with the carts, acting completely uninterested in Hungary or her frying pan.

"W-what did he do?" Austria was trembling now, eyes darting around looking for help. Prussia, obviously, was no good, Germany was trying to disappear near the carts, and Li had locked herself in the rental car.

"Can't you guess, dear?" Hungary asked, facial expression akin to something you might expect to see on an insane serial murderer. Austria flinched back involuntarily, and slowly shook his head "no." The grin on Hungary's face widened. "Oh~ well, if you must know…" She clenched the frying pan so hard the handle dented, "_he got mud on the hat you bought me_."

"He's behind that pillar there." Austria pointed. Hungary lunged.

"Nooo!" Prussia screamed in terror, trying in vain to escape the mad female and her frying pan. Metal whacked flesh with a resounding thwack-! sound, and Hungary grinned savagely at her victim's pain. Her frying pan swung again and again to hit the cowering albino, and maniacal laughter issued from her lips.

Li wondered if she could make a run for it and survive. These people were insane!

"Hungary, _bruder_ is not moving!" Germany finally stepped in, trying to restore calm to his friend and fellow nation, as well as save the life of his ex-nation elder brother. Hungary paused in her whacking to see that Prussia was, indeed, lying unconscious on the ground.

"Whoops. I got carried away." Hungary blushed slightly, and scratched her head with the hand that didn't have a frying pan in it. "I'm sorry, Germany. Um, I'll get the rest of the luggage. You and Austria carry him in?" She smiled apologetically at Prussia's body, and went to the car.

"I'm not touching him." Austria held his hands up. "I don't know where he's been."

"Austria, please." Germany sighed, looking around, hoping he wouldn't have to ask a complete stranger for help. His eyes lighted on Li, still safe inside the car, refusing to open the door for Hungary on account of the frying pan still being in the nation's hand. The tiny speck of blood on Hungary's cheek probably wasn't helping either.

"For the last time, no." Li said stubbornly, holding on to the lock for all she was worth. Hungary had yet to actually try forcing the matter, and Li wasn't sure if her friend…no, better go with just ally at this point…was strong enough to actually break the door down. After that little scene with the frying pan, Li was pretty much willing to believe anything of the nation. Especially anything including violence…sweet, sweet violence, which she hadn't allowed herself to indulge in now that her primary target (the Avatar) wasn't around to take the abuse…

"I just need to get the bags out. Come on, Li, Prussia deserved it. Really." Hungary was pleading now, it seemed, hands pressed to the window. Sadly, she had yet to relinquish her grip on the frying pan. "Just open the door and hand me the bags."

"I can still see it. Frying Pan of Death, in your hand there." Li pointed, keeping a firm grip on the lock. "Put it away so I can see you do it, then I'll open the door. Not before that. Please."

"Oh, fine." Hungary sighed, stowing her frying pan in a bag. "There, it's gone. Open the door?" Li complied, and handed Hungary several of the larger bags. Germany walked over to the car as Li struggled to bring out one of the largest bags, managing to get it partway before it stuck somehow.

"Let me." Germany reached into the car, past Li, and firmly grabbed the bag. He gave a sharp tug, and it came out easily. Li flattened herself against the seat to give him room to get the bag past, and he felt a little red as the back of his arm brushed her collarbone.

"Thank you." Li took out more bags, and glanced at Germany curiously. "Weren't you going to get…Prussia…inside?"

"Austria refuses to help." Germany sighed. "And sadly, while I could carry him alone, it would look like I am kidnapping him. So, I was wondering, if you wouldn't mind helping…?" His voice was so hopeful, even if he couldn't look at her, that Li decided there could be no harm in it. She nodded, and slid out of the car.

The wind hit her, and she clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering in the cold. Her internal temperature began to spiral downwards, and she wrapped her arms around her body to keep from shivering noticeably. It was almost as bad as being thrown into a cooler, one of the best ways to incapacitate a Firebender back in the Four Nations (Li had decided somewhere along the line that her own world would, until she got a better idea, be called "The Four Nations" in her head). Coolers were freezing metal containers that sapped a Firebender's internal heat, and thus their ability to Firebend, until the Firebender in question was either released or froze to death. Sadly, it was notoriously easy for a Firebender to freeze to death. Unless they wore insulated clothing, like most of the cold-weather army uniforms, or used their Firebending to keep them warm (harder than you would think in the cold, unless you had the Breath of Fire technique mastered), a Firebender in the snow would quickly lose all body heat and become a frozen-solid Firebender ice sculpture.

"How are we going to get him in, then?" Li tried to ask Germany, but she wasn't sure she was speaking clearly due to her clenched jaw. Germany frowned for a second, seemed to figure out what she wanted to know, and leaned down next to his brother.

"Put his arm over your neck." He instructed, throwing Prussia's left arm over his shoulders. Li hesitated—she really didn't want to have that much physical contact with anyone, much less a male, and the fact that this albino, "Prussia," had succeeded in making her feel uncomfortable before made her even more reluctant. But she'd agreed to help Germany, so…Li mustered her courage, and gingerly draped Prussia's arm over her shoulder.

He was HEAVY! "What does he _eat?_" Li groaned, trying to arrange his weight so she could carry him more comfortably. "Rocks and metal pieces?"

"_Mein bruder_ does tend to eat a lot of junk food…" Germany admitted, hoisting Prussia higher up. He was carrying most of the weight, Li noticed, and she tried to take more of it onto her shoulders to give him a break. But he was really, really strong… "Of course, muscle weighs more than fat, and we work out together quite a bit." Germany added.

"Then you must weigh a lot, huh?" Li's mouth said before her brain realized what it had done and began to silently scream at it. She had either implied that he was fat, or that he had a lot of muscle. Depending on how he took it, she had either just insulted a potential ally, or insinuated that he was extremely strong, which, to Li's inexperienced mind, translated to a compliment with flirtatious overtones. Brain struggling to write this wrong, it started firing things at her mouth faster than the other member could keep up with. "Uhm, that explains a lot. A bunch of my friends are really muscled, so they weigh a lot too. Especially the tall ones, Si and Hong, though I'm only going from the fact that they had to stand on opposite ends of a ship once when we were sailing because they weighed so much and if they stood on the same end the ship would sink but it sank anyways because I tripped and stumbled into the tiller-thingy that Liandao was using and she got really mad at me but we argue all the time and I think I'll shut up now." Li took a deep breath. "Yeah."

"Um…I see." Germany looked uncomfortable, and Li would have groaned if she didn't know he'd hear it and think even less of her. Perfect, she had just wierded out her potential ally. Well, when she made a mistake, she usually babbled on about how it was an accident and what she'd intended and then on to whatever she thought of next until she could make herself shut up. Or, more usually, until someone else cut her off and had her go away.

Germany began to walk towards the doors, and Li quickly tried to keep up. He took long, purposeful strides, not suffering much under his "bruder's"—"bruder," could that be another word for "brother?"—weight. Li, on the other hand, did not have legs as long as him, and had to take quick steps to match his pace. Prussia bounced a bit from her movement, and she hoped she wouldn't lose her grip and drop him.

Something was bugging her, though. "Um…Germany?" Li looked in the opposite direction, but tried to keep her voice loud enough for him to hear. "Why did Hungary attack Prussia?"

"Oh, that's just how they are." Germany said dismissively. "It's been like that for centuries with them. _Mein bruder_ is very annoying at times, and Hungary doesn't take it very well. She's also somewhat violent, and her usual reaction is to attack him with a frying pan."

"Really?" Li thought about it for a minute, then realized something and started to giggle. She could feel Germany giving her an odd look, but couldn't speak because her realization was too entertaining to allow her to catch her breath.

They reached the door by the time Li recovered herself, and she bit her lip to fight back fresh bursts as she reviewed the mental images being presented to her. Germany finally couldn't stand his curiosity, and asked what was so funny.

"She attacks him because, more or less, he's annoying?" Li looked to the blond nation for confirmation. "Well…I kinda do the same thing with my…fellow traveling partner, Huo." A small grin curled her lips as she remembered all the failed attempts to inflict pain. "Only, he's a better fighter than me, so I usually don't do any damage. But it's still a great stress reliever." Stress relievers: she didn't have many of those in her life, with her little brother gone and her elder brother off doing whatever he pleased as a pirate.

"I…see." That seemed to be Germany's catchphrase whenever she said something odd. Li blushed a little, and looked away as the doors slid open. They must have an Earthbender, or their equivalent, opening them from the inside. But…did they even have Earthbenders here? She hadn't heard anyone mention Bending, but this was a totally different world, and if they had human personifications of their nations it would make sense that they wouldn't have some other things Li found normal…

Germany walked into the airport confidently, and Li quickly scrambled to keep up, in case Prussia fell in the middle of the doors and they closed on his head. Which, while highly unlikely, could still happen.

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**Okay, I'd like to take this chance to ask for some good, critiquing reviews that will give me valuable feedback on how I'm writing this story. I do not, in any way, want to write Li as a Mary Sue-in fact, I fear this more than cows (who are evil). So please submit a review about how I'm doing! Also, personal opinions of my story and character and characterization of the nations would be more than welcome!**

**As a warning, though...if anyone wants to have me pair two characters...sorry, but no. I want to make this as similar to the canon as possible. So, since there is no clear statement in the canon saying, oh, "Canada and Prussia are dating," I won't put any sort of pairing with them in. Prussia's said that Canada's awesome, so I'll put that in-but all you PruCan shippers, sorry, but no.**

**Since Hidekaz Himaruya has stated that Sweden has feelings for Finland, I'll put that in. But Finland denies being a "wife," so no, they're not in an established relationship. Sorry, but the canon is clear.**


	15. Acrobatics

**Heya! I don't own Hetalia or Avatar!**

**On another note...x.x I've been working on a huge project, so I haven't had much time to write. Plus, my brain is presenting me with an idea for a new Hetalia story (which I am merly planning out for now) and egging me on in an original story I'm also working on. If any of you guys read OFUA:TLA, expect it to be a while before I get the next chapter out. I have a test in 30 minutes, and another test tomorrow, and evil math homework, and I have to start working on a plan for a plaza for another class. Don't you just love college...**

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"This…this is an 'airport'?" Li asked, looking around in amazement. Glass was everywhere. _Everywhere._ Metal supports, thinner than you would see in the Fire Nation (which used the most metal in its buildings), supported huge, windows and lined the inside of the building.

"Yes, an international airport." Germany agreed. He led Li and Prussia over to a series of connected chairs made of some strange material that Li was fairly sure she had never seen before, and the two deposited Prussia on one of the chairs. "Now, I have to go return the rental car, so please wait here with mein bruder until Hungary and Austria come."

"Okay." Li settled down two seats away from Prussia, rolling her shoulders in discomfort. They still felt weird, an aftereffect of touching someone that Li had developed after her time as the Tóngyī ShÌjiè's prisoner. She reached around to rub one shoulder, but couldn't quite get to the sore spot, and groaned slightly in discomfort. Germany had left by now, off to do…whatever he'd said he was going to do. Prussia was still unconscious, and Li took the opportunity to look around.

There were people everywhere. Some were talking, some sitting in chairs like the ones Li and Prussia currently occupied, some walking around quickly carrying bags or children. It was a huge crowd, like you might expect to see in Ba Sing Se's markets, or during a military parade in the Fire Nation. So many people…Li would swear she'd seen more humans in this building, in the short time she'd been present, than there were in the Air Temples and Air Nomad groups combined. Such a huge press of humanity, seething around her…

A low, half-moan, half-groan sounded a few seats over, and Li turned to see Prussia stirring. Her first reaction was panic—he was waking up, ahh, what to do, he was waking up!—but it quickly dissipated when he put a hand to his head and gave a very clear sound of pain. Realizing his head must hurt, Li got up from her chair to sit next to him, and put a hand lightly on his arm.

"Hungary attacked you with her Frying Pan of Death." She said gently, keeping her voice soft in case the sound made his head hurt worse. "I don't think you should move too much. She was…very enthusiastic about hitting you on the head."

"Eh?" Prussia's eyes opened blearily, and fixed on Li. A goofy, arrogant smirk spread across his face. "He-ey. Didn't see you there."

"Well, your eyes were closed, so…no, you wouldn't have. Wait…what?" Li flinched back as she recognized his tone. "Ah…um, Germany's taking care of the something…he said Hungary and Austria would be here soon…"

"Then I better make this quick…" Prussia grinned. Before Li could register his words, an arm shot out to slide around her waist. The sudden touch immediately activated Li's "attack the person touching me before they hurt me" instinct, but before she could act on it, Prussia had pulled her onto his lap. His free hand started to rub Li's leg, and the sheer shock of the situation stunned Li into inaction.

"Wha…wha…eurrrrgh…" Li squawked the last part, a cross between a noise of shock and the sound of someone being strangled. She stared at Prussia, not knowing what had brought this on and unsure how to proceed, when she felt his hand touch her butt.

Then she followed her instincts.

With a practiced motion, Li delivered a hard chop to the part of Prussia's head that had gotten the most Frying Pan of Death hits. He stiffened, then passed out again with a low moan. Li untangled his arms from around her, then practically fell over herself backwards in her haste to get away from him. She took the nice-smelling coat off, figuring she wouldn't need it for now, and set it on the seat next to Prussia, then took a seat just beyond that so she could keep an eye on him for any signs of recovery. If he did start to wake up again, she would deliver a solid blow to the head once more and restrain him with…something. She could improvise.

"Hey, Li! I see Prussia hasn't woken up yet?" Hungary called, pushing a cart full of luggage over. Li started at the sudden call of her name, twisting to look for the source before spotting Hungary and Austria. It seemed the aristocrat wasn't helping Hungary at all, which seemed a bit un-gentlemanly to Li. Weren't men supposed to help women with everything? That's what she'd heard in all of her talks with her cousin Kai, the expert on all things male.

"Um…no." Li felt herself flushing a deep red, and tried to clear her memory of Prussia's extremely-short awakening. "Not at all. He's just…been sitting there. Unconscious. Yup." Hungary raised an eyebrow, and Li shrank into her seat a little. A knowing look crossed over Hungary's face, and she nodded sagely.

"Don't worry. I'll beat him up again when he wakes up." Hungary grinned savagely, thinking of how great it would be to bash Prussia with her frying pan until he was mulch. Li shivered at the look, and wondered if she would look similar if she were actually able to beat the Avatar up. She probably would…it was an excellent evil-intentions glower, one that promised pain and death to any who crossed the wearer. When the day that she _could_ beat Huo up finally came…

"We should get to the boarding station soon." Austria pointed to a large, glassy sheet of some odd material. Writing, mostly symbols Li couldn't decipher, flashed across the surface. Several lines disappeared entirely, or changed color, or simply shifted to other symbols. It was amazing. Li looked for something she could read, and spotted several screens with characters she knew on them.

"What number is ours?" She asked, trying to sort through the various planes listed. So many! And…if she was correct in her assumption, there were many more "airports" all throughout this world, and all would have "planes" in similar numbers as this one! Which meant that they had at least a hundred times the number of commercial air travel machines as the Four Nations had total airships! Of course, the Fire Nation had the most by far. While the Earth Kingdom acknowledged the potential usefulness of air travel, they were, by nature of being the _Earth_ Kingdom, much more partial to land travel. As for the Water Tribes, well, they were pretty isolated at the North and South Poles, and one of the more technologically-backwards nations of the Four. Any travel they needed to do could mostly be done by boat, the obviously-preferred choice of a Nation named for the water. Air Nomads…they didn't _need_ airships to travel by air.

"It should be 273." Austria explained, squinting to better read the symbols on the screens. It seemed he could read most of them, by how he kept looking at screens with different symbols. Li searched the screens she could read, but couldn't seem to find any that said 273.

"There it is!" Hungary pointed to a screen, and looked around. "I'll get the luggage. You guys head to the boarding area. Germany should be along in a bit, so I'll wait for him. We can get Prussia, if he hasn't woken up by then."

"Are you sure? I could help with the luggage…" Li offered, not really wanting to be away from Hungary. Despite the rather scary Frying Pan of Death incident, she still thought Hungary was her best ally right now. Perhaps even a friend. And Austria, despite offering her a place to stay and a job, still didn't seem to like Li very much.

"No, I can get it." Hungary shook her head, smiling at Li's offer. "You and Austria can get on the plane. Don't forget your coat, it'll be a little cold on the boarding dock." Li picked up the coat, and just settled it over her shoulders, figuring if it got cold she could put her arms through and zip it up then. The zipper, though she had mostly mastered it, was still a challenge for Li.

Without a word, Austria led the way through the crowded airport. Li could see shops, restaurants, selling all kinda of foods and goods. People around her chattered in various foreign languages, and strange smells from the restaurants and even some of the people drifted through the air. Despite not being much of a social person, Li found herself people-watching with fascination.

There, that person looked like someone you might expect to see in the Earth Kingdom—dark hair, dark eyes, skin that wasn't too pale but couldn't be called tan either. Another person, a woman to Li's left, would have stuck out like a sore thumb even in the middle of a group of rebellious Fire Nation teenagers: hair dyed an impossible bright pink, pale blue eyes, clothing pure black and just dripping chains and metal fixtures. And over there, a child in a thin coat, with short black hair and light brown eyes…

Li shivered as she realized just who that little girl was reminding her of, mind going back to that strange occurrence just the day before. Her attention returned to Austria, looking grand and imposing even in a shabby coat, walking ahead of her without a glance backwards to ensure she was following. It almost annoyed her, that he would practically ignore her when she was a Princess of the Fire Nation…but he didn't know that, and hopefully never would, and he only thought of her as that strange, weird young woman found in the snow under suspicious circumstances, and who was now his maid.

Yes, there was nothing frustrating about her current situation at all.

Li resisted the urge to grind her teeth as she followed Austria, allowing her pent-up anger to seethe inside her for a moment—just a brief moment. She was a Princess. Of. The. Flaming. Fire Nation! And yet here she was, in a completely different world from her own, reduced to a maid for the human personification of a country she had never heard of before, and which was undoubtedly nowhere near as powerful as her own beloved Fire Nation. Her very honor was being reduced to ashes, and yet she was taking it without so much as a protest.

Not that the Four Nations were very different for her, at least not at the moment. Li clenched her fists, remembering the past months of running, hiding, fighting desperately for her life as the Tóngyī ShÌjiè regime hunted her as if she was no more than a squirrel-fox, camping out 19 out of 20 nights and eating food worse than what servants at the Royal Palace got. Oh, she told everyone she didn't mind—she told them she liked it, getting away from her lifestyle as a Princess. But that lifestyle was so ingrained in her that Li couldn't help but feel as if she could hear the snobby voice of a pampered noble girl in her head, turning her nose up at the rough breads and soups and stews, screaming in anger at the lumpy sleeping bags, crying in terror whenever her hunters caught up to her…

Overhead, the lights were getting brighter, and Li realized she was inadvertently affecting them as she had with that strange lamp back in Russia's house. She forced herself to calm down, locking her anger into a box, promising it release the moment an enemy showed their face to her. While she would like nothing more than to be able to blow up whenever she felt like it, doing so would not only be irresponsible of her, but potentially deadly. Especially here, where the lamps overhead were so large, and had so far to fall. Losing her cool could mean people would die. Her breathing settled into a simple control pattern, and the lights began to dim.

Austria led her to some stairs that were—strangely—moving on their own. Li couldn't see any Benders manipulating it, and decided it must be another sort of machine they had here. Metal steps rose from the floor, going higher and higher, and Austria went to stand on a step like he had done this a hundred times before. He probably had. After a few false attempts to jump on—it was harder than it looked, okay?—Li managed to take a step as well, but several people had gotten on between her and Austria. The ride up was distracting—Li's experiences with rising off the ground were usually much faster than this, and much more dangerous to boot.

She stumbled at the top, and had to take a moment to straighten herself out. In that time, she managed to lose track of where Austria was completely. Li waited for a moment, hoping he would notice that she wasn't following him anymore, but after several minutes it seemed pretty clear to her that he wouldn't be coming back for her.

"Well, this sucks." Li muttered to herself, trying to keep herself from getting angry again. Her much-practiced control came to her aid once more, and she took several calming breaths before looking around. Being slightly shorter than most people in the Four Nations—and pretty much everyone here, in this airport—made it hard to see very far around herself, and Li couldn't see Austria at all. Thinking maybe a higher vantage point would help, Li made her way to the railing along the second-floor balcony. Grabbing the railing, she hoisted herself up and cautiously stood, trying to keep her balance.

Still no sign of Austria. Li craned her neck, hoping to catch a glimpse of him, but saw nothing that she could positively identify as him. He had that odd curl on top of his head that should be showing over the heads of the people in the crowd (who were giving Li odd looks), but there was nothing. Hoping she could see Germany or Hungary on the first floor, she turned her gaze around and scanned the lower area. But she couldn't catch sight of any of their distinctive features, not even Prussia's strange white hair. That was either good or bad, depending on how she viewed his last actions towards her. Since he was woozy and injured, and time had passed, she was thinking perhaps she would forgive him. Eventually.

"Мисс! Пожалуйста, уйти оттуда сразу! Это опасно! Вы может упасть, и получить больно!" A man in an outfit that seemed to Li to be very much like a uniform appeared from the crowd and began to yell at her.

"Huh?" Li frowned at his words, replaying them in her head, trying to get the general gist of what they might mean. "Umm…help me, I'm lost?" The man frowned for a moment, then sighed and put a hand to his temple. "Okay, you don't speak my language. Which, really, shouldn't be too surprising, since apparently there are a bunch of languages here where, back home, there's only the one that everybody speaks." Seeing as he couldn't understand her, complaining to him probably wasn't doing much. But hey, it helped to say it out loud.

"Если вы не будете двигаться, мне придется применить силу" The man stated with a growl, reaching up towards Li. She flinched back on instinct—which, considering where she was, probably wasn't the best of ideas.

Li realized she was falling about the time her feet left the railing of the balcony. The world slowed down, and she vividly saw the face of the man in the uniform, staring at her in horror, and the other people on the balcony who were watching her fall. One or two tried to grab her, but Li was falling backwards too quickly for them to reach her in time. Germany's coat slid off her shoulders, falling slowly to the floor twenty or thirty feet below her. It crossed her mind that this was actually a pretty interesting sensation, and one that she hadn't really experienced before. Falling, yeah, she'd fallen a lot over the years. But not unintentionally, with nobody below to catch her.

Fortunately, her body knew what to do. Years of training had her twisting herself into a somersault, drawing her arms and legs into her body briefly to spin and re-orient herself. Then her legs extended just in time to connect with the ground, and bent just enough to redistribute the force of the fall throughout her whole body equally, and her arms flung to her sides to maintain her balance.

There was a beat where Li stood there, legs twingeing with the pain of having to take such a move after half a week of more-or-less inactivity. Then Germany's coat landed on her head.

She straightened and took the coat off of her head, resettling it on her shoulders, and looked up at the man in the uniform. He was staring at her, looking shell-shocked, as were most of the people who had seen what she had done. Which was somewhat surprising to Li, seeing as she wasn't exactly the greatest acrobat in the world—her world at least.

"Sorry?" Li waved up at the man, trying to look properly apologetic and sheepish.

One person began to clap. Then someone else joined them, and someone else, and more, and more, and before Li knew it a whole group of people were crowding her, slapping her back, laughing at her stunt and jabbering at her in their strange language. Or languages, because several of them were speaking very differently from others.

"Okay. Yeah. Thanks. Have you seen Austria?" Li asked nobody in particular, thoroughly confused by now. She hadn't done anything spectacular. It was a simple fall of maybe twenty-five, thirty feet. Anybody could survive that. Admittedly, they would have likely broken something in the process, and Li feared the foot that had gotten the glass shard stuck in it before the miraculous healing might be fractured slightly. But really, it was no big deal. Also, the physical contact was starting to creep her out.

"Li!" A familiar voice called, and Li turned to see Hungary running towards her. The woman looked like she'd just seen a spirit—or something scary enough to make her heart stop. Had Prussia woken up…? Yes, there he was, him and Germany, following Hungary.

"Hi. I lost Austria." Li looked around at the clapping crowd, which was seriously weirding her out by now. "Um…why are they clapping?"

"You…you just…how did you…" Prussia babbled, pointing to Li, then the balcony overhead, then back to Li. He looked like he was about to pass out again (which, as far as Li was concerned, might not be a bad thing). Germany seemed to have similar thoughts, but he at least was refraining from pointing.

"How'd I what?" Li frowned, glancing up to where Prussia was pointing and seeing nothing impressive. "What'd I do?"

"You…don't you remember?" Prussia gasped.

"Remember what?" Li was starting to worry now. Had she done something embarrassing? "I lost Austria in the crowd, I climbed on the railing to look for him, I fell. What'd I forget?"

"The part where you land like an Olympic gymnast!" Prussia cried, throwing his hands up in the air. "Mein Gott! What are you, woman?"

_Oh, just a Princess of a military nation, who had been trained in combat pretty much since birth._ That was what someone epic and cool would say.

"Um…human, I hope." Li fidgeted nervously. The applause had pretty much died out at this point, and she was feeling acutely uncomfortable with the situation. A small crowd had gathered at first, but even though it was mostly gone, Li was still getting odd looks from passer-bys. Germany had yet to speak, as he was staring at her as if he thought she would transform into some strange being any second. Hungary was silent as well, looking as if she was trying to figure out how in the world Li could have done something so simple as land on her feet after a fall of ten meters.

"You fall thirty freakin' feet and land like a cat, and then you don't act like it's a big deal, when you've pretty much just spat in the face of gravity?" Prussia seemed to be getting a little worked up—okay, a lot worked up. His words, however, only confused Li more.

"What are you talking about? Anyone can do it. You just need to know how." She frowned, and started worrying her lower lip with her teeth. "It's not like it was very far. My friends can fall from two or three times that high and still land on their feet. And their feet don't hurt afterwards," she added with a grimace, picking her foot up and shaking it to see if that made it hurt less. Quite predictably, it didn't, and Li ground her teeth in frustration. That foot was getting a lot of punishment lately.

At her words, Prussia seemed to give up entirely on the subject. "Fine!" His hands flew up into the air, and he started getting louder as he spoke. "Ignore the fact that you've just executed a move that would make Angelika Keilig-Hellmann jealous, you don't even seem to think it's the least bit impressive! And you're implying there are people who could do _better_ than _that_?"

"Of course there are!" Li cried, putting her hands on her hips. "I should know, I've met most of them!" Images of her friends flashed through Li's mind—the Avatar, Xiao Huo, her Ru, her cousin Kai, the Airbenders Xing, Si Wang, and Zi You, Huo's childish and creepy little brother Hong, Liandao the Waterbending Master, the odd and slightly disturbing Ying Niao (who had randomly popped up at their campsite one evening and seemed to be on an erratic schedule of appearing, sticking around, and mysteriously vanishing).

"You know what? I'm not gonna consider you as a human anymore." Prussia sighed, grimacing. "The awesome me shouldn't have to deal with weird acrobatics from strange girls after just getting beaten with a frying pan." Hungary fingered her frying pan, a small smile on her face briefly at the memory. "I'm just gonna go and get the luggage and go and get in my seat and ignore the rest of the world until I'm back home with a beer in my hand."

"You do that." Hungary advised as Prussia disappeared into the crowd once more. She turned back to Li. "And you. Are you seriously saying that landing on your feet after a fall of that height is normal in your country?"

"Well…yeah." Li shrugged, starting to feel acutely self-conscious as Hungary gave her a look of disbelief. "You never know where you're gonna end up fighting a battle, so we train in all terrains. My favorite place was always the cliffs, because almost nobody ever looks up when they're in one. Though, after a few days I had to stop jumping on people." She smiled at the memory.

"Wait, are you saying you're in the military?" Germany had apparently recovered enough to ask the question, and Li hesitated. Technically, no, she wasn't _in_ the military, she _led_ it. Semantics aside, of course, that line of questioning could be very tricky. She needed to consider what to say before opening her mouth.

Completely unbidden, her lips blurted, "Yes." Li resolved to punish herself for that slip-up the moment she found a good place to train. Knowing she had to explain further, judging by the looks she was getting from the two nations, she continued. "In the Fire Nation, everyone aged fourteen to twenty is considered to be a recruit for the army. Only those eighteen to twenty can be drafted in an emergency, and we haven't had many of those in the past hundred fifty years. But the system ensures we have trained soldiers at all times, should a disaster occur or for isolated instances."

Germany looked troubled at Li's description of Fire Nation life, which puzzled her. Admittedly, the other nations didn't follow such a system exactly, but it wasn't like it was completely unheard of. In fact, it was partially based off of the fact that the in the Water Tribes, every adult male member was a fully-trained warrior. Oh, they could do whatever they pleased, but they had to be able to hunt for food, or defend their Tribe in case of attack. The Fire Nation simply had its much larger population and ensured that everyone would be competent in case of an attack, which was more likely in the years following the War than it was now. Of course, 150 years ago, in the aftermath of the War, tensions were running high, and both sides were still clamoring for blood after the abrupt end of a bloody war.

"Let's go to the plane. We can talk more there." Hungary decided. She took Li and Germany by their forearms and led them towards the moving stairs.


	16. Arrival

**Welcome to another lovely chapter of Fire Lily! I own neither Avatar nor Hetalia, and am offering cookies to all reviewers!**

* * *

Germany glanced over at Li for the fourth time in the last minute. After expressing awe and a little interest in the airplane, she had quickly gotten bored, and was talking with Hungary about something-or-other. The two had seats next to each other, on the other side of the aisle, and Germany (who was sandwiched between Prussia and Austria, in an attempt to keep his brother from annoying the other nation enough that Hungary brought out the frying pan) kept wondering what in the world was on their minds.

* * *

"So, let me get this straight." Li drilled a serious look at Hungary. "You're saying that 'yaoi' is a popular theme for all sorts of stories? And yaoi is…is…guy…on…guy?" The last sentence was punctuated with much hesitation and blushing on Li's part, staring wide-eyed at the female nation. "And…your country is pretty well-known for it?"

"Come on! Just think about it for one second!" Hungary urged. "Look at the boys over there—okay, see Prussia eyeing Austria? He likes to torment my ex-husband. But what if it's just a front for his feelings of attraction towards him?"

"Ex-husband? You two were married?" Li went completely off topic, glad for the excuse. The subject of yaoi was giving her disturbing mental images…disturbing because she kind of liked the thought of guy-on-guy action. But she kept imagining her male friends making out, and it was making it hard to keep a straight face. When Hungary had added that incest was common in the fan groups for certain "animes" (apparently like plays, but there were no actors, just pictures in a box: Li had resolved to investigate this concept further when she was settled in), the mental image Li had of the Avatar and his younger brother Hong nearly gave her a nosebleed.

"Well, yes." Hungary sighed. "For nearly sixty years. But there were several…incidents, and the other nations insisted we split up. We're now forbidden from ever uniting our countries again, under the Treaty of Versailles."

"What's the Treaty of Versailles?" Li bit her lip, hoping she could find some sort of scroll on this world's history. A complete compendium would be nice, but that much paper could probably go around the world several times over before addressing all the information Li was wishing she had.

"Oh…it was made after a war." Hungary admitted. "Basically, Austria and I started it by declaring war on some small countries after the assassination of one of our leaders. Russia declared war on us, because he wanted to control those countries himself, so Germany declared war on Russia to help us out. Only, France declared war on Germany, and so did England, and there was a huge mess of alliances, and we wound up losing."

"Huh? You lost a war?" Li blinked, trying to grasp the thought that the kind woman before her had fought—and lost—a war. "Did you pull out the Frying Pan of Death?"

Hungary laughed at Li's nickname for her favorite weapon, and nodded. "Yes, I did, but it didn't do much. We were outnumbered." She explained. "The Treaty of Versailles was established after we surrendered. Basically, it set out the rules we had to follow as a consequence of losing. Part of it was that Austria and I had to divorce, and could never marry again." A wistful look entered her eyes. "So, we're not married anymore."

"That's horrible." Li said neutrally, though she really couldn't see why Hungary seemed sad about it. They had married for political purposes, more or less, right? So they'd had to split up—so what? Politics were politics, and if they demanded that two people either be together or separate, Li saw no problem with that.

"Well, I have been getting Valentine's Day gifts from an anonymous someone." Hungary giggled, smiling. "And his description usually matches a certain someone, so I think it's safe to assume he feels the same as me."

"Wait, I thought it was political." Li blinked. "You mean you two actually have feelings for each other? Beyond the 'oh I must marry you for the good of my people' sorta thing?"

"Well…yes, of course." Hungary blinked. "The personified nations act according to our people's actions as a whole. If two countries unite, they fall in love and are married. If two countries are at war, they will grow to dislike the other. But over the years, as our people's opinions change, so do our opinions of each other. For example, England and France have a long history of fighting, but for the past century they've been getting along better than ever before. Not that they don't still fight, but I swear it's sexual tension being released."

"England and France…?" Li thought for a moment, then remembered. "Oh, that guy with huge eyebrows and the creepy one with a perverted mind?"

"Yes, them." Hungary smiled cheerfully, though at Li's description of France her hand snuck towards her frying pan. "Of course, there are lots of other countries. About two hundred, not counting all the ones of us that aren't full nations, or Prussia."

"What about Prussia?" Li frowned, sneaking a glance across the aisle at the albino. He'd taken the window seat, so Li had to look past Austria and Germany to see him. She was a bit embarrassed to find that him and Germany were both looking at her.

"Oh, he's not a nation anymore." Hungary sighed. "He wasn't even a nation to begin with, actually. His original name was the Order of St. Maria. After that, he became the Teutonic Knights. Then he became the Duchy of Prussia in the Holy Roman Empire. He caused a lot of trouble for Austria, especially when a woman became Austria's ruler."

"What's so wrong with women ruling?" Li immediately went on the offensive.

"Nothing!" Hungary began to get angry as well, and the girls somehow agreed (without words) that they would direct their anger at Prussia. "He just wanted an excuse to seize Austria's vital regions." The mental image that gave Li would have given Hungary nosebleeds of joy. "I had to join the war in the end, after England declared neutrality because he'd gotten to beat up France. And I was able to beat up Prussia, so everything worked out!" A dangerous grin flashed across Hungary's face, and the girls both turned to look at Prussia.

* * *

"…West?" Prussia said weakly, seeing the looks he was getting. "I think I'm gonna die."

"What makes you say that?" Germany had buried his nose in his book after Li had caught him looking, and was refusing to look up.

"Hungary's looking at me like she did when I seized Austria's vital regions all those years ago, and I think she's been telling Li some stories." Prussia nervously attempted to hide behind his muscular little brother. "Can we double-lock all the doors and windows tonight? I don't wanna wake up to Hungary kneeling at my bedside with a spear, chanting 'return the vital regions,' again."

"I still think you must have dreamed that, bruder." Germany sighed.

* * *

By the time the plane landed, Prussia and Li had fallen asleep. Hungary shook Li awake gently, and the girl was groggy through the entire process of customs and baggage retrieval. She only started to show signs of being something other than a sleepwalker when Germany and Prussia bid her, Austria, and Hungary farewell.

"Huh?" She opened her eyes all the way for the first time since the plane. "You're going now?"

"We're in Berlin." Germany explained. "This is where my house is. Hungary's car is in the parking lot, so she's going to drive you and Austria to Vienna, where Austria lives, and stay with you for a day. Then she'll be leaving for her home as well."

"Oh. Okay." Li gave a wavering smile. "Then…I'll see you." She watched them walk away, not sure if she was sad that two of the very few people she knew here were leaving, or grateful that she wouldn't embarrass herself around Germany anymore. His opinion of her couldn't be good, not with all the stupid thing's she'd done around him so far.

"Come on." Hungary encouraged Li, handing her several of Austria's numerous bags. "My car's not far."

* * *

"This is where you live?" Li looked up at the large house, curious. It wasn't anywhere near the size of the houses in the Fire Nation Capital, which were occupied mostly by nobles and high-ranking government or military officials. Only two stories tall, it was in the midst of a large garden, which seemed to be carefully cared for. Hopefully, gardening wouldn't be among her duties—Li had nothing that resembled a green thumb. If her thumb was any color, it was a magical black, a color related to its mysterious ability to pretty much kill any plant it touched.

"Yes, it's a little big." Hungary agreed cheerfully, mistaking Li's disbelief for amazement at its size. "Don't worry, it's already pretty clean. Austria keeps it very tidy. You won't have to do much, just wash the wooden floors, vacuum the carpeted rooms and the rugs, maybe wash the windows and counters. He doesn't let anyone clean his room, or his music room, so that's two rooms you won't have to clean."

"Huh? Oh…yeah, pretty big, yeah." Li blinked. "How many rooms are there?"

"Perhaps we should bring the luggage in before further discussion?" Austria suggested, motioning to the luggage piled high in the back of the van Hungary drove. Li and Hungary, looking at the imposing pile, agreed that it was best to begin now, when there was still a chance they could move it all inside by dark. Not that Austria was going to do any manual labor and help them, of course, so they might be going until dark anyways.

It didn't actually take them until dark, due to Li having the dubiously-brilliant idea of maneuvering the van so that its door was inches away from the front door of the house. Had she allowed Hungary to do the driving, it would have been fine…but Hungary, at the time, was manhandling one of Austria's suitcases up a flight of stairs at the back of the house, and didn't realize she had left the keys in the ignition for any foolish girl to attempt to use.

Well, nothing was damaged.

Austria became a little flustered when he saw that the van had passed dangerously close to a small statue in his garden, one of a rearing horse, but Hungary was able to calm him down. Li and Hungary then managed to quickly pass everything inside by forming a sort of two-person human conveyor belt, and from there it was simple to carry/roll/drag the rest of the baggage of to Austria's first-floor master bedroom.

"Well, who's hungry?" Hungary offered after moving the car to the driveway proper. Li realized she had been meaning to talk to someone about something, and shyly turned to the somewhat-older woman.

"Um…about that…" She blushed as Hungary and Austria looked at her curiously, and tried to get over her embarrassment enough to speak. "Umm…what do you eat here?" Their blanks only made Li feel worse, and she hastened to explain. "At home, we mostly eat rice, noodles, meat, and vegetables cooked in woks or roasted or smoked or the like. And it's all really, really spicy. But at Russia's house, the food was cooked strangely, and it was really bland. So…what sort of foods do you have here?"

"Huh?" Hungary blinked, then brightened. "Oh, of course you would ask that! I'm so sorry, the nations are all used to eating one another's foods, we can completely forget that normal humans don't always look at different dishes the same. Let me see…describe some of the dishes you eat?"

"Umm…rice, noodles, steamed or smoked fish and sausages and meats, fire flakes, fire gummies…there's a lot." Li shrugged, her mind running over the various dishes served in the Four Nations. "There are a lot of varieties, but basically anything from the Fire Nation can be expected to be really, really spicy. It's sort of like our culinary signature."

"Really? Hm…" Hungary paused to think. "Well, I know Spain's food can get a bit hot at times, and Mexico's food is dangerous to the unsuspecting victim, but I don't think many of the other nations eat spicy food a lot. All right, maybe my food has a lot of spices too, but it's not too bad."

"America tends to eat spicy foods sometimes." Austria offered, already sitting back in a comfortable armchair and reading a book. "And England does like curry."

"True, true." Hungary nodded thoughtfully. "But they don't really have a sense of taste at all, so I don't think they count. How spicy are we talking, Li?"

"Umm…I've heard people joke that we're the Fire Nation because all the spice in our food makes us breathe fire." Yes, the Firebending part had to be taken out to ensure Li's abilities weren't discovered.

"Hmm…well, one of the things Austria is known for is desserts." Hungary offered. "He makes the best cakes in Europe."

"Aren't cakes a breakfast food?" Li frowned in confusion. Apparently food here was much more different from food in the Four Nations than she thought. What else was different? If cake here was a dessert, then did that mean fruit (the Four Nations' typical desert) was a breakfast food or something? Or was it something else? The cultural differences were starting to make Li's head hurt, although she was fascinated with the thought.

"I wish cake was a breakfast food." Hungary sighed, then picked up Li's bag. "Here, we'll talk more as I show you to your room. Follow me." The two women began to head upstairs, discussing the typical foods served in Austria's house.

"Seriously? He serves a lot of game?" Li grinned at the thought. "Does he hunt it himself, or does he buy it from other people? He doesn't look like the sort of person to do a lot of hunting."

"Oh, he has a lot of woodlands, so most of his citizens hunt." Hungary laughed. "Not that he would ever dream of hunting himself. He's too much of an aristocrat for that. And he didn't want to make a huge meal for you tonight, since you've only just arrived, but the two of us will be making you a large dinner tomorrow. Be warned, it'll probably be half desserts. Or tortes, as he calls them."

"Will there be tea?" Li asked curiously. After the awful tea at Russia's that came from a bag, a BAG, of all things, she was a little apprehensive about tea here. But, true to her heritage (the Fire Lords were notorious for being tea connoisseurs) Li enjoyed tea quite a bit. It was one of the reasons she put up with the Avatar: annoying fool or not, he indisputably made the best tea she had ever had. Probably because he had been raised in a tea shop, the Jasmine Dragon, famed throughout all Four Nations as the best tea shop in the world. But that was irrelevant, since Li was pretty sure that even if he'd been born to a family of tea-haters he would still be able to make the most delicious cup of jasmine tea she had ever tasted. Mmm, jasmine…

"Tea's more of a casual drink." Hungary admitted. "And it's not even that popular these days. Coffee is much more common…and you don't know what coffee is, do you?" Li shook her head no, wondering what in the world a drink called coffee could be like. "Hmm. Well, basically coffee is a hot drink that's really similar to tea, but has a more bitter flavor."

"Bitter?" Li made a face. She wasn't a fan of bitter tastes. "Umm…maybe I'll just skip the coffee…"

"Here's your room." Hungary stopped the girl, and opened a door to reveal a medium-sized bedroom. There was a cream bedspread, which seemed to match the walls. The floors were dark wood, as was the wood of the bed, bedside table, and wardrobe. Li entered the room and saw a desk in one corner, of the same dark wood as the other furniture. "I know, it's not very personalized, but you can get Austria to buy you new sheets and the like when we go shopping tomorrow."

"Shopping?" Li froze. "What's that about shopping?"

"Oh, didn't he tell you? We're going to buy you some clothes of your own, and you and I are going to get some personal items." Hungary smiled at Li. "After a little while, maybe a few weeks, I'll take you to Paris. France may be a pervert, but he does have excellent fashion sense. You can get almost any style of clothing there. And if you want different furniture, we can find you a catalog, or something online, and order it. That, or maybe we can get Sweden to do a special order. He's very good at making things."

"I don't think I know Sweden…" Li frowned. "Who is he?"

"Oh, he's the tall scary one." Hungary answered. "I think you threw Russia into him. Might want to apologize for that, by the way. Nobody can quite tell what he's thinking, so you may want to make sure he doesn't hold a grudge." Li had a vague recollection of a tall, imposing figure, and shivered. "Anyways, I'll give you a minute to unpack. There's food in the kitchen—do you think you can find it? I'll meet you down there, and we can get you something to eat."

"Okay." Li agreed, and Hungary left the girl to unpack. Which, since Li only had a few articles of borrowed clothing, didn't take long. She ordered her things in the dresser, separating them into drawers based on type, and ordering them in the drawers based on color. All of her underthings were loans from Hungary, and she resolved to buy her own when they went shopping, no matter how embarrassing it would be.

After finishing her unpacking, Li headed downstairs for the kitchen. She had a vague idea of where it might be, having glimpsed something very much like one of the kitchens you might find in the Fire Lord's palace (there were about eight Li knew of) while bringing Austria's bags to his room. It turned out to be a room to the left of where she'd thought it was, but in the end she met with Hungary in the kitchen.

"All right, since you don't know much about Austrian or Hungarian dishes, may I offer you the stove?" Hungary smiled at Li. "There are ingredients in the fridge and the cupboards, and if you tell me what you need I can see if we have it or not."

"Okay. What would you like to have?" Li offered. "I'm not the best cook, but I can make most basic dishes. Rice, noodles, fish, spice soup, komodo sausage? Any of them sound good?"

"Err…I don't think there are noodles or rice in the house, and Austria isn't such a big fan of fish." Hungary looked slightly apprehensive. "And, as for spice soup and komodo sausages…I don't know what kind of spices you'd need, but Austria doesn't have many, and I don't think we have any komodo dragon meat in the freezer."

"Komodo dragon? I've never heard of those." Li went to a shiny white metal box that was probably a cooler of some kind. She opened it to find she was indeed correct, though it was much smaller than coolers in the Fire Nation palace. It had two doors, one on the right side, one on the left: Li had opened the right side door, and found a bunch of vegetables she mostly recognized, as well as a few fruits and fruit preservatives. Checking the other door, she found a freezer, with a few bundles wrapped in white paper, which she assumed was meat. "Do they fly?"

"Fly? No, they don't fly. But if you weren't talking about komodo dragons, what else could you be talking about?" Hungary sounded confused now, and Li wondered why. Komodo rhinos, while being native to the Fire Nation in her world, were still known everywhere. Whoever's country had komodo rhinos here had surely started exporting the tasty meat like the Fire Nation had, after the end of the War stopped the need for the beasts for military purposes.

"Komodo rhinos." Li turned to look at Hungary, frowning slightly. "Hey, can you tell me what kind of meats these are? I can't read the labels."

"Hm? Oh, they're probably all just deer." Hungary waved a hand. "But back to the subject…what in the world are komodo rhinos?"

"They're large lizards with bulky bodies and horns on their faces." Li replied, deciding she wasn't in the mood to roast or stir fry antelope-deer. "Are you up to a salad? I can make something pretty easily with what you have here. Where does Austria keep the spices?"

"In that cupboard there." Hungary pointed to one of the dark wood cupboards above the sink. "And I've never heard of komodo rhinos before. They must be unique to the Fire Nation."

"Yeah, I suppose they are." Li answered, going to the cabinet Hungary had pointed out and opening it. She saw maybe a dozen containers with words written on them, and started to take them all down. "But you're sure you don't have them? I thought they had to exist outside the Fire Nation. So tasty and all. The sausages from them are delicious. Oh, I don't suppose Austria has similar food?"

"No, but Germany does. We can ask him to make some sausages sometime, and you can see if they're similar to…komodo sausages, was it?" Hungary offered. Li grinned and nodded enthusiastically at the thought, then opened one of the spice containers and took a sniff. Cinnamon. Not one of her favorite spices…okay, she hated it. It went back in the cupboard.

"Well, if you don't have komodo rhinos, what do you make your sausages out of?" Li continued the conversation as she smelled another container. Salt. Did salt really count as a spice? Oh well, that one she would keep, at least. "Boarcupines? Bull pigs? Camelephants? Gemsbok bulls, gorilla bulls?"

"I have no idea what any of those are." Hungary wrinkled her nose, slightly puzzled at the odd names. It sounded like Li was just crossing animals with each other in completely illogical ways. "We use pigs, cows, horses sometimes. None of those."

"Pigsheep? Cowpigs? Ostrich horses?" Li sniffed the sixth container of spice, then returned it to the cabinet. "Huh. Most people don't eat ostrich horses. Too useful for travel to kill, and when they're past their prime, the meat's too stringy for everyone but the poorest to want."

"What in the world?" Hungary frowned, and walked over to Li, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Li. Look at me." The girl, not understanding what was wrong, turned to look at Hungary. "You're just crossing normal animals. Stop it. It's not funny, and there's no way they could exist."

"Huh?" Li recoiled in shock. "Wait—wait a minute! You're saying you don't have eel hounds? Ostrich horses? Moose dragons? What about Platypus bears, you have those, right? Right?" At the disbelieving look on Hungary's face, Li started to panic. "You—you—you don't have them? Then what _do_ you have? You…you have Badgermoles, right? Arctic hen, turkey duck, turkey chicken, turtle ducks, catgators, gopher bears, tigerdillos? You have those, right?"

"Li…I've never heard of those!" Hungary exclaimed. "They're just crosses of normal animals! We have chickens, ducks, bears, cats, armadillos, tigers, but none of those things!"

_"What?"_ Li yelped, eyes now almost completely circular. "You…you…" A sort of calm descended over her, strained and slightly forced. "This place is weird." She declared, turning back to the spices. "Weird, weird, weird. I'm not going to be surprised anymore. No, a sparkling pink unicorn could crash through the window and I would not be more surprised than I am now."

"No, Li, you seriously have those animals in the Fire Nation?" Hungary pressed the issue. "Do you? Because, well, most of them sound like they just couldn't exist! They're even all just crosses of normal animals!"

"Their names come from the fact that certain traits appear to be constant." Li hummed, gathering the four spices she deemed fit for salad usage and moving to the fridge. As she selected some lettuce and a few other ingredients, she continued. "Like how platypus bears, armadillo bears, gopher bears, and skunk bears all have a similar type to their physiology that makes them bears. There are stories that there was once a creature that had only bear physiology in the—in a city back home, once, but I don't really believe them. But they all have different traits that make them separate species. Like how armadillo bears, while they have the traits of bears, also share similar traits with armadillo lions, armadillo wolfs, tigerdillos, etc."

"That…that explains why they sound like crosses of normal animals, but that still doesn't explain why you seem to think they're real." Hungary studied Li carefully. "You…you do think they're real, don't you? You're not just pulling a prank on me, are you?"

"I don't think it'd be a very good joke, would it?" Li's voice quavered a bit. "I mean…well, this hits it home, all right. I'm not in the Fire Nation anymore." She wasn't even in the Four Nations anymore! Her shoulders slumped a little as she closed the cooler and placed her chosen vegetables on the counter. Hungary, who had anticipated Li's next step, handed her a knife. Li began to chop up the ingredients, using a built-in cutting board on the counter that slid out of place.

"Hey…do you want me to take over?" Hungary offered, seeing Li's hands tremble a bit. Li shook her head silently, not trusting her voice not to crack on her as homesickness overtook her. "Okay then." The woman went to sit down at the counter, and Li could feel her eyes staring at her.

Outside the door, Austria was sneaking to his study. He had to phone Germany with another new development on Li.

* * *

A light breeze swept over the flat grasslands. One lone man stood in the knee-high grass, staring upwards at an unusually large full moon. Unusual—for the mortal worlds. Not so unusual for the Spirit World.

"Yue." He said, voice tight with anger. "We must speak."

Overhead, the moon's light intensified, concentrating itself into a single, broad beam that focused on the ground just in front of the figure. Light coalesced into a figure, a young woman in white-blue clothing that bore the insignias of the moon and the Water Tribes. Her white hair, done up in an elaborate Water Tribe style, did not move in the breeze like the man's black hair.

Upon her solidification, the man gritted his teeth. "I think I need to know why you didn't inform me of what happened the moment you were finished with the beginnings of the healing process." He growled at the moon spirit. "And why, even after bringing the Avatar and the spirit-child into the Spirit World to begin searching for the spirit that stole her, you were unable to bother yourself to notify me. in fact," he began to pace now, hands clasped behind his back, "I wasn't even notified by an ally. It was Koh—the face-stealer spirit—who told me of what had happened. Koh, who has a history with Li's friend the Avatar. A history I do not enjoy thinking of."

"I am sorry." Yue bowed her head. "I was so caught up in organizing a search, I forgot to speak to you of this matter. Ru vanished into the Black Space almost the moment she entered the Spirit Realms, and I could not find her for an hour. When I did, however, she told me she had seen Li."

"WHAT?" The man exploded, turning on Yue. Anger blazed in his eyes. _"AND YOU DIDN'T THINK TO TELL ME?"_

"I was trying to trace the path that Ru had taken!" Yue defended herself. "But it faded before I could, just like the trail that Li's soul made! I am sorry, but please, you know I would have told you the moment I had exhausted all other options!"

"Yes, perhaps." His voice dropped to a low, threatening tone. "Or perhaps you would have allowed me to continue to be ignorant. Despite the fact that Li is so important—so _vital_—to me!" Yue flinched back from his glare, his yellow eyes burning a hole in her. "Is it your version of revenge, Yue? Keeping this information from me, as vengeance for past actions against you? Remember, I am not so tame as I appear, dear Tui. Do not forget your previous incarnation's death." He bared his teeth in a savage grin. "I was granted power by the dragons, and in doing so they gave me a little bit of themselves. That instinct—the raw, brutal powers of the first Firebenders—still whispers in my ears."

Yue resisted the urge to gulp. "I—I have not forgotten." Her voice sounded weak, even to her. "But please…I was attempting to find her. Surely you must realize my haste to do so distracted me from the matter of telling you."

"Yes, I know, Tui." He smirked. "You and your lover, La, would not dare to ignore me. So I'll forgive you this. But I am still displeased."

"I am greater than you." Yue pointed out, but her throat was rapidly drying. "If you were to attack me, I would destroy you easily."

"Yes, I know that too." The man closed his eyes for a moment to bask in a memory. "But you're so young…are you sure you know how to kill me? Because I know how to kill you. Where you've only existed for a hundred and fifty years, I have lived for centuries, millennia. You've inherited the first Tui's memories—what do those tell you about me?"

"That…that you were first a sage." Yue whispered. "You grew as a sage, until you became a soldier, and grew arrogant, fueled by your successes. And that…a hundred and fifty years ago, you were a monster." At the final word, the man's shoulders relaxed, and his head bowed slightly.

"Monster…am I still a monster, Yue?" He looked at her. "Was I ever truly a monster? How can you be sure I was not simply confused, misled by the words of those who were supposed to govern and protect me? How do you know I did not simply fall prey to the wiles of humans and their charms?" His words pierced Yue's heart, the simple sadness telling her there was more to him than she knew. But she still remembered his actions, and shook off her pity.

"Who might have taken her?" The moon spirit asked. "Do you know of any enemies that might have wanted to take the Fire Lord?"

"Enemies? Hmm…about half of the Spirit World has yet to forgive me for my actions. You included, I might add." The man placed a hand on his forehead, bending his neck and closing his eyes to concentrate. "But…no, nobody who would jeopardize me like this."

"Then I must return to the search." Yue informed him. "Huo and Ru are still searching the Spirit World near the connection to the Oasis. I must return, as Ru cannot sense spiritual energies and Huo does not know how to interpret them. Farewell, Fire Nation." The moonlight surrounding her dimmed, and she vanished.

The Fire Nation remained where he was, and gazed at the quickly-setting moon. "Li…" He breathed. She was his—his Fire Lord, his only hope for salvation, his fire lily. One hand strayed to his chest, resting over the spot where his heart beat. In both metaphor and reality, she lived there, the representation of his capital and the place where all the love in his body was concentrated. It's not like all the nations felt such attachment, such love, for their rulers and future rulers. The Earth Kingdom certainly approved of her future Earth Queen's attitude, yes, and the Northern Water Tribe loved that his Tribal Princess was able to get what she wanted and more through simple words, but they did not feel the intensity of the Fire Nation's feelings.

While the Nations had, long ago, agreed that it was best to primarily reside in a small plane of the Spirit World just off of the mortal world, they only observed their respective peoples. None of them entered the mortal world anymore, not even to chat with their rulers. The Fire Nation hadn't, not since the War's end, when he had realized the things his leaders had influenced him to do were wrong. Even before that, it was only the occasional stop, once or twice every reign, while he was busy fighting a War for them.

Li…she had been the only one to make him pause. He hadn't intended to meet her, at first, he had only wanted to take a stroll in the mortal world after over a hundred years of staying in the realm of Wanban. But in that field of fire lilies, he had seen a young girl, playing with her friend, her brother, and her nanny…and he had known she would rule him one day. And he had fallen in love with her.

None of the other nations knew—they would understand, of course, but he simply did not want anybody to know the depth of his feelings for the girl. For so long, his rulers had been cruel, starting a war that pitted him against his former friends, and then apologetic, conceding to so many demands despite the resulting weakness it brought him. At least they had not agreed to return the Fire Nation Colonies—his precious daughter—to her mother, the Earth Kingdom, who almost hated the girl and the memories she carried with her.

Now, after so many years, someone had come that would be his ideal ruler. Strong, but not cruel. Kind, but not influenced so much by the knowledge of what her ancestors had done that she would give in at the first mention of them. Loving, but not blind to what had to be done, sometimes, to keep him strong.

Li would strengthen him. Li would protect him. Li would love him.

And for that, the Fire Nation loved her with all his heart.

* * *

**Hm...sorta long-ish. Oh well. Cookies for reviews! Also, I finally realized the symbols I WAS using for scene/POV changes were not translating over to Fanfiction, so I'm now going over everything carefully. ^**_**^ Review and tell me how I'm doing. Is it good? Bad? In-between? I wanna know what YOU think!**


	17. Shopping

**I do not own Hetalia or Avatar.**

**I would also like to give props to Sabaku no Koori, whose amazing historical knowledge is giving me a better understanding of the Nations from a historical perspective-and that in turn helps my characterization of them. Hail to Sabaku no Koori!**

* * *

Li sat anxiously in the seat of Hungary's van, wondering why Austria didn't seem to own a car. They were driving through the streets of a town the nations called "Vienna," on their way to find some stores Hungary insisted Li would like. Austria had outlined the plan for the day earlier: shopping for clothing, lunch at a restaurant, girl shopping for Li and Hungary while he attended an afternoon concert, then back to his house for a dinner he himself would make.

Perhaps it was just part of who she was that Li was already thinking of possible ways this could go wrong. Though most of those ways seemed to include outlandish fight scenes set to adventurous music. Where did the music come from in the first place?

"Here we are!" Hungary found a parking spot for the car, and pulled in. "Austria, I'm going to take Li into the store. You can wait here until we're done and I come get you to pay for our things. Don't wander off and get lost. Again. Please."

"I find it insulting that you seem to believe I cannot even walk the streets of my own capital without becoming lost." Austria said huffily. Li raised an eyebrow at that, but decided not to ask until she was alone with Hungary. In fact, come to think of it, if she was going to be living with the man…nation…creature…okay, that was on the list. What kind of creature they defined themselves as.

"Li, you are about to experience the European cultural shopping center." Hungary announced, opening her door. "And we are going to find you everything you will need for life with the nations." Li slid open her door (she had been in the middle section, with Austria taking the front passenger-side seat) and shivered in the cold, drawing Germany's coat farther around herself. She would have to find new cold-weather gear so she could return it to him. Or…well…maybe…she could hang onto it…it was really, really nice…and smelled really, really good…and she was going to leave that train of thought where it was because it was getting dangerous. Next thing you knew, she was going to start judging men simply because they smelled good. She did not really think very many men smelled good. Well, okay, the Avatar didn't smell too bad. But she didn't make a point of keeping clothes he loaned her just because they smelled good.

He stole her stuff enough that it smelled like him a lot of the time anyways…and yes, that included her dresses. Which were getting somewhat stretched, by the way.

Austria pulled out a book and settled himself in his seat. Li gave him a glance before sliding from her seat and closing the van door. Hungary gestured for her to follow, and the two left the parking garage they were in to enter the streets of Vienna.

Seeing the shops, glass windows displaying posh clothing (or what Li assumed was posh, for these people's culture), Li's first instinct was to run away as fast as she could. However, due to Hungary's hand on her wrist, pulling her along, it was a little difficult. People on the street were glancing at the two of them: Li supposed some people might think they were sisters out shopping. Didn't they know what Hungary was? Oh right, someone had mentioned to her before that not too many people knew…

"Here we are!" Hungary announced, dragging Li towards one of the stores. Signs and glowing metals named the various shops, but they were all written with some strange symbols Li couldn't interpret. They were somewhat simplistic, vaguely similar to the old writing the Northern Water Tribe used in the millennia before the Splitting of the Tribes, when the ancestors of the Southern Water Tribe left their home at the North Pole to head for the Southern Pole. What did the Professor call those again? "Lunes"? No, no…"runes"? "Runic"?

"Um, Hungary, please tell me—" Li was cut off as Hungary rushed the doors, the Firebender in tow. Thinking the crazy nation was just going to ram them both into the glass, Li squeezed her eyes shut and hoped it didn't hurt too much.

Then there was a blast of warmth, and Li realized they were inside. Startled, she opened her eyes to see the doors closing of their own volition, and was reminded of the airport's odd sliding doors. She couldn't see anybody around manipulating the doors, and really didn't see the point of wasting Benders on a simple shop anyways. Okay, so it probably wasn't Bending making the doors open.

"Okay, Li! First things first: work clothes." Hungary stopped, and grinned at the confused girl. "Skirts or pants?"

* * *

Li ate her meal in silence as Hungary chattered about their shopping and Austria listened politely, occasionally mumbling something to prove he wasn't just faking it. After the first store, they had gone to seven others, and if Li could have chosen, she would have crawled under the covers of her extremely-comfortable bed at Austria's and stayed there for a week.

Hungary, in stark contrast, was already telling Li about the next shop they just HAD to visit.

It was lunchtime, and they were eating at a small "coffee shop" in Vienna. Li had let the nations choose her meal, and was eating a "sandwich," basically meat and vegetables between two slices of bread. She didn't think it was too bad, but…well, it tasted funny. And it was a little bland.

Austria's phone rang, and he excused himself to answer it. Hungary turned to Li and smiled thinly. "You don't like shopping much, do you?" The Firebender hastily tried to assure Hungary it wasn't that bad, but Hungary waved it off. "It's okay. I don't like shopping for myself much either. But I just love dressing others up in adorable clothing. Like Italy…when he was younger, I'd dress him in my old clothing. He looked so adorable."

"I don't shop for myself much." Li confessed, feeling much better for having said it after holding it in all day. "Especially not like this. Going through racks looking for things…I'm much more used to just telling a tailor what I want and getting my things custom-made. Like this, with everything coming in sizes and specific designs and colors…it's just really, really weird."

"Doesn't the Fire Nation have factories?" Hungary asked in surprise, and Li realized her mistake. Ordinary citizens did, in fact, shop like she just had—or in a method very similar. But the upper levels of society, her included, were able to design clothing themselves (usually with the help of professional designers) and commission professional tailors to make the clothing for them. There were textile and clothing factories in the Fire Nation, and the Earth Kingdom was starting to get some as well. And Li wasn't a very good liar.

"N-n-no?" She stuttered. Hungary caught the lie immediately, and her eyebrows knit together before she sighed and took a drink from her coffee.

"Whatever you say."

* * *

"Are you sure? Are you 100% sure?" Austria pressed the scientist on the phone.

"Yes sir. The two samples you sent us do not match at all. And the older sample…well, it's definitely blood, but…" The scientist hesitated, and cleared his throat. "Sir, both samples have some anomalies that make me wonder where you obtained them at."

"It was found at a crime scene. That's really all I can say." Austria sighed. He wished he could disclose the full range of circumstances, but his hands were tied due to the incident having occurred in Russia's home. Not that Russia was forbidding them from investigating, no, but he had expressed his desires that the entire incident be kept under wraps. So beyond saying it involved a crime (which was probably true anyways), Austria had no answers.

"Well, sir, the second sample itself was unusual enough, but the first sample really has us stumped." He paused, then added, "May I ask how much blood was found?"

"I'm afraid that information is classified." Austria answered smoothly. "This is a delicate matter, I'm sure you understand. It's a stretch sending samples to an outside source for testing, but our own results were inconclusive."

"Due to the anomalies, I have no doubt." The scientist agreed. "Well, I'll admit, we had to run those tests multiple times to ascertain there were no system malfunctions. That's why it's taken us so long, especially with the older sample. How such a thing can possibly exist, I really do not know, but it's become a fascination for some of us here. Do you have more samples, just so we can run a new battery of tests? The sample you sent us was destroyed while we conducted our investigation."

"I'm afraid there are no more samples." Austria blocked the request. "Now please, tell me the results of your tests. I will not tell you the results of ours, to avoid bias."

"Very well, sir. I'm sure the Special International Criminal Investigation Squad knows what it's doing, in any case." There was the sound of paper rustling over the phone line, and the man on the other end cleared his throat. "In the instance of the first sample, which arrived at our facilities on Thursday, March 3rd, at 11:26 AM by special delivery, we were able to ascertain that the substance was blood via basic chemical composition analysis. We were, however, unable to retrieve any DNA from the sample. This was not due to degradation of the sample, but rather from the fact that despite it containing red and white blood cells both, as well as other common elements of blood, there was no DNA in any of the cells."

"What? You're positive?" Austria tried not to let his surprise show, but it was difficult. While he himself was no scientist, he did know enough to realize that he had just been told an impossibility. "No DNA, despite it being blood?"

"Yes, it's part of why we're so interested in this case." Came the scientist's reply. "Now, in addition to finding no DNA, despite it definitely being organic matter, our toxicology screening revealed that it contained absolutely zero toxins or foreign substances. If not for the lack of absolutely any DNA, I would have to suppose this sample came from child."

"A child? Thank you, anything else?" Austria transferred his phone to his left shoulder, then pressed his head against the shoulder to keep it in place. He pulled out a notepad from his jacket pocket and began to scribble notes.

"Well, as for the second sample, it's equally unusual." More papers rustled, and the scientist resumed. "Delivered to us Saturday, March 5th at 3:58 PM by special delivery, we were able to determine it belonged to an infant female, likely newborn, and likely the child of an Amish couple due to the utter lack of anything non-organic in the blood. However, we did learn that there was a certain anomaly in the organic material itself."

"An Amish infant?" Austria repeated, pausing in his writing. "You're certain?"

"Yes. But that's not the interesting part." The scientist on the other end of the line sounded excited. "You see, the sample appears to be…irradiated. I can't think of a better term."

"Irradiated? How so?" Austria put his pen and paper in one hand, and used his right to transfer the phone to his other ear. The second sample was Li's blood, from when she pulled that glass out of her foot. He might just get some answers from this.

"Well, of course, we ran as many tests as we could to be sure of what we had found, but…there was definite evidence of a sort of energy coming out of the sample." The scientist admitted. "We are currently unable to determine what kind of energy it was, and time made it dissipate and weaken, but it definitely came from the sample. Our current hypothesis is that it is similar to radiation, and that the subject was exposed to it shortly before the sample was taken."

"What? But she wasn't—" Austria began before catching himself and stopping. "Ahem. Please disregard that last statement. International security, you'll understand."

"Of course, sir." The scientist answered eagerly. "Ah, other than the radiation, the subject did not seem to have any other anomalies. We sent a sample of DNA—only DNA, nothing more—to a genetics lab we know and trust. Hopefully they'll have answers for us in two or three weeks."

"I see. Thank you." Austria concluded the call, then shut his phone and simply stood outside the shop, thinking. Li's blood had been exposed to an odd energy sometime before she stepped on that glass—but she'd been taking a bath. Perhaps something to do with Russia's water? No, Russia might be odd, but his water was likely safe.

Had whatever caused the light to explode been the source? Austria flipped his phone open again. In any case, he needed to tell Germany what he'd learned.

* * *

Ru looked up as the moon spirit appeared again, and resisted the urge to start in on her. Huo was lounging nearby, not acting nearly as serious as the situation called for. The Spirit World was an immense realm, full of dangerous spirits and pitfalls. Li's soul could be anywhere—the entrance to whatever world she was in could be in some remote location, or three feet away. And Ru wouldn't even know about it. This area was a forest, with the roots of the trees rising from the ground to create natural seats and shelters. Both mortals were making full use of them.

"I have spoken to a very important person." Yue informed the Firebender and the Avatar. "He has informed me that, while the Fire Nation is still disliked by many, there are none who would go so far as to kidnap the future Fire Lord simply to punish him." Ru frowned at the use of "him," but dismissed it as a slip of Yue's tongue—for now.

"It's not a spirit, then?" Huo asked, sitting up on the comfortable root he'd claimed. "But who else could have done this?"

"No, it was most definitely a spirit." Yue corrected him. "Nothing else has the power, save for one. But he does not interfere with the worlds anymore." A small light—nothing more, just a pinpoint of nothingness radiating a bright light—flew by Yue's head, but she ignored it. Her hair and clothing began to move in a breeze that affected nothing else, as if she were standing in a separate world all its own. "What we must do is track the 'scent' of her soul to the spirit that abducted her."

"Get to, then!" Ru snapped, before a look from Huo had her draw a deep breath. "If we can find Li by doing that, then we should get to it right away. How does it work?"

"It will require your help, Long Ru." Yue held out a hand, and several of the light-wisps began to float towards her palm. "Your bond to Li is the strongest available to us. I can create a visible path to show us the way to her soul—but it will require much energy from me, and can only be sustained for about a minute before it fails."

"Then, pray tell, what good is it? If you can't use it to lead us to Li—" Ru began, then stopped as a thought occurred to her. "Can you use it every once in a while to tell us what direction to go? Like…signs along a path?"

"Yes." Yue nodded, as four light-wisps gathered together into one large light-wisp that hovered an inch over her palm. "The yinghuochong can also be utilized in a similar way, making them follow her scent for as long as they can focus on it. Sadly, they are easily distracted, even when they combine to increase their powers—both spiritual and mental."

"That's no different from me, my brother, Li, Liandao, Mao, You, Xing, Heitun, and Aizo being in the same room together!" Huo noted cheerfully. "Of course, then it usually leads to huge explosions and screaming and angry people." He paused for a moment, then added, "That's why we're not supposed to be in the same room together without a 'sane' person around to keep us in line." Ru gave him a glare.

"Avatar, I will need several minutes to gather my chi so we may begin." Yue explained. "In the meantime, a friend of yours would like to—"

"OY IDIOT!" A small blur of fox-red hair/fur and green fabric collided with the back of Huo's head, sending him to the shallow, swampy water of this region of the Spirit World.

"Oh, hello Wulong." Ru nodded politely to the small creature sitting on Huo's head. Huo, face submerged, gave a sort of water-muffled grunt that was either a request for Wulong to kindly get off, or a cry for help. She flicked his ear with her tail in response, making him squirm as he tried not to inhale water in the wake of an automatic giggle.

"Wulong, the Avatar cannot breathe." Yue said absently, focusing on her palm. "Kindly get off of his head now." The forest spirit pouted, but scrambled off Huo's head to find herself a comfortable spot on the surrounding roots. Once more able to lift his head, Huo jerked his face from the water and gasped for breath.

"Thanks!" He gasped. Wulong raised one delicate eyebrow, but didn't speak. She was in the form of a child—or at least, what a child might look like if through some twist of genetics one of its parents was a fox. Instead of normal human ears, she had quivering triangles of skin covered in red fur—or really short red hair. A fox tail lashed from its position at the base of her spine, and her semi-long hair had been pulled up so it looked like she had two extra tails on top of her head.

Ru gave Wulong a steady look—not quite a glare, but close. Wulong returned it for a full minute before flinching and looking away. A new record.

"So, why'd you come, Wulong?" Huo asked as he found a new root—Wulong had taken his original seat, and was sitting on it like a dog, hands resting on the rough surface between her squatting legs. "I mean, you've made it pretty clear in the past you don't think much of me, and you're scared of Ru."

"Am not." Wulong snarled at him. "What kind of idiot are you, thinking I'd be scared of a mere mortal? I am the great and powerful guardian spirit of Wulong Forest!"

"Who's incidentally also afraid of fire, Ru, and Si." Huo spoke quickly. Wulong gave a short bark of disapproval, but restrained herself from launching at the Avatar. Since the young spirit was usually violent every chance she got, this newfound restraint of hers made the Avatar study her more closely. "Um…Wulong, you…have you been crying?"

"_NO_!" Wulong screamed at him, quickly rubbing at her eyes with the sleeve of her simple green robe. "I…I just got some dirt in my eyes on the way here! The…the other spirits were saying Li had been…that she'd been hurt…" The girl trailed off, lowering her eyes. "And…I was in a hurry…and…something got in my eye…"

"Aww. You don't _really_ hate Li, huh?" Huo grinned. Wulong gave an inarticulate cry of rage, and jumped towards the Avatar. The two wrestled for a few minutes—despite being small, Wulong _was_ the spirit of a vast forest, and she could put more force into her actions than a train-tank from the Fire Nation at full speed if she really wanted to. But Huo, being larger than her, had the advantage of height and longer limbs. Before the fight could get too fierce, he managed to pin Wulong to the ground, and held her there for a full minute until she stopped yelling profanities at him and growled for him to stop acting like a pervert and get off of her.

"Are you done yet, Yue?" Ru called. The moon spirit shook her head 'no' slightly, as more of the light-wisps gathered in her palm, now creating an orb of light roughly an inch across.

"Anyways, I came because I figured I might as well help you guys find Li." Wulong confessed grudgingly. "Because…well, I mean, I don't have anything better to do these days. My forest is pretty much safe by now, and I gave Li my priest-beads." At the mention of the strand of green clay beads, the forest spirit raised a hand to her chest, where they would have rested if she still wore them. "Those are kind of important, you know. Don't really recall why I gave them to that Firebender. Guess it was a spur-of-the-moment thing."

"Right. Those things." Huo nodded, then had the wherewithal to look sheepish. "Uhh…what're priest-beads again?" Wulong smacked her forehead, then grimaced, displaying her small, pointed teeth.

"Y'know—my priest-beads? Those pretty, shiny balls of glazed clay from my shrine's site? I gave them to Li after she was an idiot and tried to rebuild my shrine by herself?" Wulong rolled her eyes. "Good thing you guys made her accept your help, 'cause she was getting dangerous with that hammer she was trying to swing around. Hit the nail, what, once every three times? She promised to find a kid that'd make a good shrine-keeper for me, since I can't possibly be expected to keep that shack clean all by myself. Still no word from her, either…"

"We've been at the North Pole lately." Huo explained. "Not many Earth Kingdom people there. Plus, do you know how hard it is to find a kid with all the qualities you want? It's been driving Li crazy. More than usual, at least."

"Avatar, all is ready." Yue's voice resounded slightly, as if echoing off the walls of a cave. Ru, Huo, and Wulong all looked over at her just as the ball of light in her palm shot straight through Ru's chest, then sped off in a completely different direction, going right through obstacles like they weren't even there. The moon spirit began to glide after it, weaving through the trees.

"Cool! Follow the light!" Huo shouted enthusiastically, getting to his feet and charging after the moon spirit and ball of light.

"Huh? WAIT FOR ME, IDIOT!" Wulong screamed, jumping into the branches of the trees and leaping along easily.

Ru, in sharp contrast, had already caught up to Yue, and was gaining ground on the ball of light. Li was out there, and she wasn't about to waste time yelling about nonsense.

* * *

**Once more, tell me what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong. Did you like something? Tell me! Did I misspell something? Portray someone out of character? Tell me! If I did it wrong, I wanna know how to make it right! And only you can do so...in a REVIEW!**

**On the subject of reviews...I'm almost to a square hundred! So the 100th reviewer gets a requrest! Yay for 100 reviews! **


	18. Party

**Me: Hai u gaiz!**

**Li: Oh flame...**

**Me: Iz been hangin wit mah sister, n she haz me bein all txt-speak-y n stuf!**

**Li: Kill me now...because where she doesn't own Hetalia or Avatar, she owns me...**

**Me: Oh please. Like I'd really talk like that ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME.**

**Li: I didn't even know what you were saying...**

**Me: Me neither. It's like a foreign language...that gives people headaches...and makes me feel mildly homicidal...**

**Li: o.O USE PROPER ENGLISH, REVIEWERS! I DON'T WANNA DIE!**

* * *

Li was washing dishes. Hungary would be leaving in the afternoon, but first she was making sure Li knew all she had to do as Austria's maid. Prior to the dishes, she had shown Li where and how to dust, how to operate a vacuum cleaner, how to use a mop, the best techniques for scrubbing wood and tile surfaces, and what to do with the odd bottles under the bathroom and kitchen sinks—mix them with water, then clean off countertops and such with rags dipped in the solution.

After those, they had attempted to move on to the dishwasher, but Li had dropped a fork into the back of it (how, could not be guessed) and then turned it on. Now Austria was on the phone, ordering a new dishwasher (to be installed in three days), and Li and Hungary had to do the dishes by hand. It wasn't so bad—dishwashers didn't exist in Li's world, and in the past few months she hadn't had any servants to clean for her, so her and her friends had to wash their dishes themselves. The dishwasher itself was a bit scary to Li—if they had such advanced technology they could afford such a thing for commoners, what was their military technology like? Their medical knowledge?

Hungary was telling Li more about technology—the Firebender wasn't sure she believed Hungary about some of the more extraordinary devices being described, such as "cell phones" and "laptops" and "the Internet," but Hungary had promised to demonstrate to Li as soon as the dishes were done. This led to Li attacking the dishes with a passion, and managing to crack one plate. After being assured it was "no big deal," she started putting the dried dishes away while Hungary finished up.

Her task was interrupted by a sudden ringing noise, something like a bell crossed with a gong or a triangle. Li jumped, squeaked, and dropped the plate she was holding, which proceeded to shatter into several large fragments.

"Oh, no, I should have warned you about the doorbell…could you answer it? I'll pick these up." Hungary sighed, shooing Li off. Suitably guilty at having broken something again, and hoping Austria wouldn't be too mad at her, Li made her way to the front door.

"Ve~! Hi Li!" Italy and another man, presumably a nation, were standing on the doorstep, bundled in thick coats. Italy's companion looked remarkably like him, only with more tanned skin and darker hair and eyes. "I wanted to come say hi earlier, but _fratello_ insisted we wait. I'm so happy to see you! Can we come in?"

"Hm? Ah…oh, uh, yeah, sure." Li stepped back from the door, opening it wider as Italy and his companion entered Austria's house. They took off their coats and started to hang them in a closet, but Li remembered herself just in time and hastily intervened. "I'll get those, no, seriously, let me, isn't that what maids do? Italy, why are there red stains on your coats?"

"Ve~," Italy proclaimed happily, "those are from the pasta sauce! _Fratello_ and I were going to bring you some pasta, but I dropped it, and it got all over our coats." He paused, then seemed to realize something. "Li, you haven't met my _fratello_, have you? This is Romano. He's the southern half of our country. I'm the northern half! Officially, we're Italy Veneziano and Italy Romano."

"Really?" Li turned to Romano and gave a bow. "It's an honor to meet you, sir."

"Sir?" Romano's face was blank for a moment, but then a cocky smile slowly crept over it. "Hehe…Veneziano, you never mentioned how smart she was. I mean, to know to call me 'sir'…" He looked like the Solstice had just come early.

"Umm…well, Austria's in his study ordering a new dishwasher, but why don't you come to the living room for now?" Li offered, gesturing in the vague direction of where she remembered the living room to be. "I don't know how long he'll be, but I can get you something to eat or drink. Do you guys like tea?" Italy apparently knew Austria's house much better than Li, because he corrected her faulty mental map of the place and brought the three of them to the dining room. Romano wanted pasta, and was more than a little traumatized when Li admitted she had no idea what that was.

"How can you _not_ know what pasta is?" He was sobbing into a pillow. Italy was watching his brother with worry, begging him not to cry, while Li was having a slight panic attack at having upset one of the nations.

"Uh, um, Fire Nation food seems to be very, very different from food here!" Li explained quickly. "We don't have a lot of the things you have, for one, and it's really spicy compared to your food! Ahh, please stop crying, I'm sorry, please tell me what pasta is so he'll stop crying Italy, pleeeease…!"

"Pasta is the food of the gods!" Romano declared, tossing the pillow off in one direction (where it proceeded to hit a valuable-looking vase, shattering it and nearly giving Li a heart attack). "It is the ambrosia of Italians! It's all we eat in my part of the house, well, that and tomatoes. Hasn't that music bastard told you anything about _real_ cuisine?" Li didn't get the chance to answer, as Romano continued. "This must be remedied! We must teach you to cook pasta! To the kitchen!"

"Oh, actually, Hungary's in there, I should tell her and Austria—" Li tried to speak, but was cut off by Italy's cheering and Romano grabbing her arm. She was half-dragged to the kitchen, which was a longer march that it should have been due to Romano's unfamiliarity with Austria's house. After Italy corrected their course ("Ve~,_ fratello_, the kitchen's that way!") and Romano claimed to have simply been testing his brother ("And you've passed, good work Veneziano!"), the three of them burst into the kitchen, Romano slamming the door and making Hungary drop a plate.

"Wha—Italy, Li, Romano?" She blinked at them in confusion. "What are you two doing here? Li, why is Romano dragging you?"

"We're going to teach her to make pasta!" Romano announced grandly. "Where are the pots? Where are the pasta noodles?"

"Wait, pasta is noodles? I know what those—" Li was cut off by Romano, who had decided she was going to learn how to cook pasta or die trying. Without any injury to him, of course. Italy sniffed out the pasta noodles, while Hungary took a large pot from a cupboard and gave it to Romano to be filled with water.

"Pasta…" Italy sang to himself as he took a box of dried noodles down from a cupboard. Hungary found aprons for the Italies and Li, then sat down at a small table to watch.

"Okay, you let the water boil first." Romano instructed Li as he started pulling tomatoes and other sauce ingredients out of the fridge. "Veneziano, stop hugging the pasta, damnit! We're gonna need it once the water boils! Right, while the water's boiling, I'm gonna show you how to make the sauce from scratch. Here, start chopping these, I'll put more water on to boil for the tomatoes. That's not how you cut celery! Oh, let me…"

Things continued in this vein for a while before the doorbell rang again. Li looked like salvation had come, but Romano refused to let her leave until she was able to mince the garlic properly. Hungary agreed to get it, since Italy was helping his brother by dunking tomatoes into boiling water (and occasionally splashing himself, resulting in screams of terror. It was a wonder that Austria couldn't hear him).

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Hungary sighed as she made her way to the entrance. "Sheesh. Who is it now? Spain? Mmm…maybe I can lure him and Romano into the guest bedroom with the cameras…good thing Austria hasn't found out about those yet…or the ones in his room…and his bathroom…Oh, I'm _coming_ already!" She reached the door and pulled it open. "Please come i—"

Prussia stood on the doorstep.

Hungary slammed the door shut and bolted every lock. "Oi! Let the awesome me in! What, too much awesome for you to handle, Hungary?" Came Prussia's demands, punctuated by bangs on the door and the ringing of the doorbell. "Hey! C'mon, I'm sorry about the hat! I told you already! Look, just lemme in! I heard Italy and Romano came over and thought I'd stop by to say hi!"

"Get out of here now! Before I bring my frying pan out!" Hungary snapped.

"I'll give you some pictures I took of France last week if you'll let me in." Prussia quickly. "Y'know, the ones where England and him got drunk, and England did the waiter thing, and then France got in some groping before England's brothers showed up and shooed him off so they could arrange an awkward, embarrassing scene for as soon as he woke up? Those pictures?"

Hungary opened the door, looking expectant. Prussia handed her a manila envelope, which she peered into before allowing him actual entry into the house. "If I didn't enjoy these pictures you get me so much, I might be tempted to refuse for once, just to see what you do."

"Oh, I'd break in, of course." Prussia responded cheerfully. "Now, do I smell pasta?"

"Romano is teaching Li to make it. And homemade tomato sauce." Hungary nodded. "They're probably going to make too much again, so I suspect it'll be pasta for breakfast tomorrow—for Li at least. I'm going back home this afternoon."

"Really? That's too bad." Prussia started to grin. "Just Specs and his new maid, all alone in the house…kesesesese…" He flinched as Hungary produced a frying from seemingly nowhere (though she had to have just been hiding it…right?). "Uhh, not that anything's gonna happen to them. Nope. I mean, you're just next door and all!"

"That's right." Hungary glared at the ex-nation as they arrived at the kitchen. "Italy, Li, Romano, Prussia is—"

"HUNGARY! LI CUT HERSELF WITH THE KNIFE WHILE SHE WAS CHOPPING ONIONS!" Italy wailed, grabbing Li's hand and shoving it at the female nation to display a tiny nick. "WHAT DO WE DO?"

"For starters, let go of my hand, please…" Li muttered. Italy clearly didn't hear her, because he continued to panic. Romano, meanwhile, was freaking out about how she'd ruined the onions. In stark contrast to the Italy brothers, Li was waiting patiently for them to realize she wasn't even bleeding anymore and hadn't, in fact, gotten any blood on the onions, just the knife, which could very easily be washed. Not that she expected them to realize this anytime soon.

Prussia felt a smirk growing on his face. The Italies would distract Hungary long enough for him to make a few quick texts…and open a window…

It took Hungary a good ten minutes to calm the Italies down. By then, the pasta sauce was ready, the noodles had almost boiled over (but still tasted delicious, as Italy and Romano had the magical ability to make all food taste delicious if they're the cooks), and Li had managed to clean the knife off. Hungary also insisted on getting her a Band-Aid, which resulted in a three-minute explanation of what those were and why she needed one ("The cut could get infected!").

"Wait…where's Prussia?" Li suddenly realized she hadn't seen him since he and Hungary entered the room. She looked around carefully, as if fearing he was right behind her, about to pounce. "Hungary…? Have you seen him?"

"What? He was…oh no." Hungary's eyes widened as she realized Prussia was nowhere to be found. Due to his history with Austria, the nation who still didn't know any of them were there (how long could ordering a new dishwasher take?), there were a few obvious guesses as to what he was up to. Most of them were very vague, and went along the lines of "Austria," "annoy," and "vital regions."

"Ve~ Prussia's here?" Italy grinned. "Is Germany here too?"

"No, I don't think so." Hungary replied, but Italy ran out of the room, saying he would find Germany and bring him to the kitchen for the pasta. Romano, who had recovered, was getting plates and dishing out pasta, grumbling that the "potato bastard" wouldn't get any of HIS cooking.

"Hey, is that…music?" Li blinked, cocking her head to get a better fix on the noise. Hungary frowned as the faint sounds of…was that German rock? Li had begun to nod her head to the beat, clearly liking the style. "This isn't like Fire Nation music at all…but I like it."

"He's probably trying to give Austria a headache. I'll tend to this. Where'd my—ah, there it is." Hungary shouldered her frying pan (an impressive feat, considering its size and flatness and susceptibility to gravity), then disappeared to find the trouble-making ex-nation. Li shuddered at the sight of the frying pan, and tried to look as non-threatening to Austria as possible. And as little like Prussia as possible, which, obviously, was quite easy for a dark-haired female with a completely different facial structure and body type than the albino.

Hungary strode her way along the hallway, trying to think of the best way to hurt Prussia to ensure he wouldn't come back for a long time. If she had her way, this latest frying pan (made of titanium) would need to be replaced, due to it being too dented to use anymore. Prussia would be in pain for a very, very…

She rounded the corner to the living room…and stopped dead. For a moment, she couldn't move, she was so shocked. Then…

"WHAT. THE. HELL. IS. THIS. PRUSSIA?" Hungary screamed, brandishing her frying pan. The ex-nation in question had the sense to look terrified.

"Uhh…Hungary! Yo! I…let a few friends in!" He held up his hands and grinned apologetically. "Soo…yeah! Looks like it's a party!"

"A FEW?"

"Well," Prussia began to point to everyone as he named them, "originally I only told France and Spain of my intentions, but then France told Canada and Canada told America who insisted they both come, and Canada also told Cuba so that's why he's here, though he keeps mistaking Canada for America and trying to beat him up. Spain gave Romano and Italy the idea of coming over with pasta to distract you, which we thought was a great idea by the way. Umm, America bullied Japan into coming, and told him to bring China, and of course South Korea followed him…er, and England came because America said he'd be really happy if he did, though now he's sulking because America forgot he'd invited him…and Italy told Poland, and Poland told Lithuania, and Latvia and Estonia caught him sneaking off…then Estonia called the Nordics and told them that since he was a Nordic too, he was going to tell them about it, and Denmark told him he still wasn't a Nordic but thanks for the invite, and that's why Estonia's drinking straight vodka in that corner over there…um, am I forgetting anybody?"

"Greece and Turkey?" Hungary asked through clenched teeth. "Sealand?"

"Ah, yes." Prussia seemed thankful for the extra time. "Sealand came to annoy England, and Greece and Turkey came because Japan came. Hey, you told Austria I'm here, right?"

"No…in fact, he doesn't even know about the Italies…" Hungary ground her teeth. "I'd better go and tell him now…AFTER I BEAT YOU INTO A PULP!"

"Ve~, Hungary! The pasta's done! We made enough for everybody!" Italy suddenly appeared in the doorway, holding five plates of pasta (hey, it's Italy, and if it's pasta, he can manage it). There was a moment where everybody in the room, who hadn't even noticed Hungary yelling at Prussia, turned their heads as one to the delicious smells coming from the plates of spaghetti.

"FOOOOOOD!" They all (or, most of them) yelled, jumping at Italy. Italy, being Italy, and thus easily frightened, managed to run away towards the kitchen while keeping the plates perfectly balanced.

"LI! _FRATELLO_! HEEEELP!" He screamed, bursting into the kitchen with a mob of nations after him, all intent on that delicious pasta he was holding. Romano glanced up from his plate of pasta, saw the scene, grabbed his own pasta, and ran. Li, who Romano had been sitting next to, watched him run in surprise, then looked back at the nations after Italy. Some, she recognized: others, she didn't.

The world swirled, changed about her, and she wasn't in Austria's kitchen anymore. Li snatched up a nearby knife, threw it past the nose of the leader of the attackers—whom she didn't recognize, but who had wild blond hair and was carrying what looked like an axe—as a warning shot. It stuck in the wall, quivering slightly, and the group of nations all tried to stop, but slid on the tile floor of the kitchen and wound up in a huge, tangled heap. Hungary appeared moments later, expecting to see chaos, and immediately whipped out her ever-present camera.

It was a full minute before anyone thought to look over at Li. When Lithuania finally did (he hadn't wanted to join the stampede, but the drunken Estonia had pulled him and Latvia into it against their will), he saw only the kitchen table, turned on its side to create a defensive shield between Li (who was presumably behind it) and the rest of the room.

"Li!" He cried in worry, struggling out from under Spain and England and America to rush over to the makeshift fort. "Li? Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Li recognized that voice, sort of. Reality came back to her, dragging her away from the memory of being pursued through the streets of a burned-out shell of a village, and into Austria's kitchen. "Oh…oh, flame…s-sor-sorry…I…uhh…"

"Umm…maybe you should get out from behind the table…" Lithuania suggested, then paused and added, "And put down the fork? You're holding it like you're going to stab someone's eyes out."

"Huh? I am?" Li looked at the fork in surprise, wondering how it had gotten into her hand. "Oh. I am. Well then." She set the eating utensil on the floor cautiously, like it was about to jump from her hand and attack someone. "Err…so…what happened?"

"Huh?" Lithuania blinked. "What are you talking about?"

"Um…well…I can't really remember what happened…just now…" Li admitted, feeling her cheeks burn red with embarrassment. Overhead, the kitchen lights began to flicker brighter and brighter, and the oven (which the Italies had forgotten to turn off, naturally) started to glow dangerously. Not that anybody noticed these oddities: they were all busy either untangling themselves from the heap of nations on the floor, or taking enthusiastic pictures of the yaoi mess (guess who).

"Well, the other nations all charged into the kitchen, chasing Italy, who had pasta." Lithuania explained, leaving out his participation in the stampede, however reluctant it may have been. "Then you threw a knife past Denmark's nose and into the wall, and everyone tried to stop at once, but slipped on the floor, and we wound up in a heap. Uh, _they_ wound up in a heap. And I couldn't see what you did after that, but I think you just threw the table on its side and took shelter behind it."

"Oh…that's not too bad…" Li smiled hesitantly, still feeling embarrassed. There was a good possibility she would have trouble looking whoever this Denmark was in the eye. And she had to add yet another person to her list of people to apologize to…there were still a few from her original outburst, on the day of her arrival, that she hadn't been able to recognize and speak to yet. There was…Japan, whoever he was…and Sweden, she was fairly sure…she wanted to apologize to America in person for attacking him again so soon after apologizing for her last outburst…and now Denmark.

Hey, that was only four people. Odd, it seemed like more in her head.

"That was amazing!" A man with long, tousled blond hair popped up from the mess of nations on the floor, one hand firmly clutching…was that a battleaxe? Awesome! Li immediately felt the desire to ask if she could learn a few fighting moves from him, product of her natural enthusiasm for all things shiny, sharp, and deadly, but squashed it as best she could with the fact that she didn't think asking for battleaxe lessons after throwing a knife at one of them would help the nations' opinions of her.

"Er…thank you." Li felt herself flushing deeper as everyone started to untangle themselves and turn their attention to Li. Oh spirits, they were staring. She was never comfortable with people staring at her. It always felt like she was about to do something incredibly stupid and just couldn't stop herself, even though she always managed to maintain her composure. A nation with blond hair stood, and Li realized it was that thick-eyebrowed nation called England.

"Hey, there's some sort of magical energy disrupting the lights." He frowned up at the ceiling, and Li felt herself panicking. She was doing it again! She was losing control of her Firebending! For a Waterbender, or an Earthbender, or even an Airbender, losing control of their Bending simply meant the water splashed down, or the earth crashed onto the ground, or the wind ceased. But when Firebenders lost control of their fire, it could be bad. Firebending's most basic forms required precision and skill, or else young Benders might accidentally harm themselves or others.

Knowing this did not help Li at all. Instead, as she thought of what _might_ happen if she lost control, she began to panic, thus losing even more of her focus on keeping her Bending down and causing the lights to get even brighter.

"England is right." Another country with blond hair extracted himself from the mess on the floor. Li noticed an X-shaped barrette in his hair, which quickly became his identifying mark in her mind. "There is a strange energy in this room." His words did not help Li's panic, and she would have sworn her face itself was on fire as she fought to remain calm. Overhead, the lights began to get painfully bright, causing the nations who were out of the pile to have to shield their eyes. The country with the barrette in his hair began to scan the room, and Li nearly had a heart attack when his gaze brushed over her. But it kept on going, right past her, and as she tried not to be too obvious with her sigh of relief, the lights started to dim somewhat.

"How did all of you get into my house?" Austria cried, appearing at the doorway. Li jumped, startled by his appearance, and instinctively scrambled for the "safety" of the table. Overhead, the lights blazed a brilliant white.

Then they exploded.

Several of the nations swore and ducked for cover. Others screamed and tried to shield themselves as best they could. America, who had just gotten out from under the other nations still on the floor, flung himself over them, yelling that "the hero will protect you!" Li was relatively safe behind the table, but a few shards of glass managed to hit her, one tearing a long gash in the new pants (which were made of some rough material Hungary called "denim," and which apparently made them "jeans" and not "pants") over her lower calf.

"What was that?" Prussia exclaimed as the glass began to settle, and the ringing in everyone's ears from the noise of the blast began to start up.

"Prussia! What have you done?" Austria demanded, sounding angry enough to kill. Li, still startled by the explosion and unsure if she had lost a minute or two immediately afterwards, cautiously peeked out around the table. Broken glass littered the floor, making it dangerous for anyone not wearing shoes. Most of the nations seemed to have kept some form of footwear on, luckily enough, but Li only had a pair of "socks" on (like leggings, only they didn't go all the way up her legs, just to her knees—Hungary had wanted to get her shorter ones, but Li hadn't liked the way they felt on her feet).

The only thing that could make this worse, Li thought as she carefully stood up, would be if Italy and Romano returned because they'd heard the noise. But no, she was pretty sure they would have run away…

"Ve~! Are they gone?" Italy walked into the room. He stopped a bit of a ways in, and tilted his head in puzzlement. "What happened?"

"Lightbulb…exploded…" America said, voice muffled from the fact that his face was pressed into someone's stomach. He seemed to be pale and shaking, a huge deviation from his normal behavior that puzzled Li immensely. "G-g-ghost…" Oh. That was it.

"Ve~! G-g-ghost?" Italy's eyes widened in terror, and he lunged for the nearest person he thought could protect him. "Save me, Li!"

His arms wrapped around Li's neck, and she froze in shock at the sudden contact. Several other nations looked panicked, probably expecting her to throw Italy at something in retaliation for his touching her. But…he was acting so adorable…like a little kid…

Li's hands came up to awkwardly pat his back. "Err…okay. You're safe." She promised, face starting to burn from the contact. "Um…could you let go…please?"

"Ve—but I'm scaaaared!" Italy wailed. Li winced at how loud his voice in her ear was, and tentatively wrapped an arm around his back. He was leaning into her, and he wasn't exactly light, so she was being bent backwards a bit. Plus, Italy was a good few inches taller than her. She was starting to get dangerously off-balance…oh not again…

Li's foot automatically went back to compensate for the shift in her center of gravity, and (of course) landed on a shard of glass. Pain shot up her leg like a white-hot wire, and Li instantly bit her lower lip to keep from crying out. Italy didn't seem to notice, but Li gritted her teeth and tried to remove his arms from around her neck. They wouldn't budge. Just how _strong_ was Italy?

"Umm…Italy…" Li hissed through the pain, "m-my foot…could you please…get off…OW!" The last part was to Italy somehow managing to lean even more on her, causing her uninjured foot to lift off the ground. That, at least, got everyone's attention.

"Oh! Your foot!" Hungary worried, carefully picking her way through the glass scattered on the floor to make her way over to Li and Italy. "Italy! Please let go of Li! She stepped on glass!"

"Ve~?" Italy released her, and Li quickly put her uninjured foot down on a clear spot in the floor, shifting all her weight onto it. She let out a sigh of relief, and reached for something to steady herself with. Hungary reached her, and put a hand on her back to keep her upright.

"Can someone get one of the chairs?" The female nation called to the others. Nobody had sustained anything worse than a few scrapes, though it looked like America's jacket was torn. England and Norway were suspiciously untouched, but were still gaping at the lights. Li winced as she accidentally set her foot down on the floor. Back in the kitchen proper, the oven started to glow dangerously.

"Prussia!" Austria cried again. "Fix this at once!"

"I didn't _do_ anything, Specs!" Prussia spat out, scrambling out from the pile of nations on the floor. "The lights just exploded on their own! We were all innocent bystanders! By the way, I'm throwing a party at your place, hope you don't mind since everyone's already here and it's been going on for a little while now."

"What…what…" Austria stared at the mess, jaw dropping open. Li immediately felt guilty for having made the lights explode, even if she couldn't have controlled it, and felt her cheeks beginning to burn with shame. Unnoticed, the oven's dangerous glow grew brighter.

"Austria, Li's stepped on glass again." Hungary called. "Could you get some bandages and disinfectant from the bathroom? I don't think it was a very big piece of glass, but I'd like to make sure it doesn't get infected. Thank you, dear." Li hung her head in shame at having, once more, stepped on glass. She wasn't feeling too good about herself right now, even if it technically wasn't her fault. The oven started to glow white-hot…

"That odd energy is still here…" England suddenly spoke, looking around wildly. His eyes caught sight of the oven, and he turned to everyone else. "I think the oven's going to—!"

That was all Li could take. She felt horrible—she had accidentally hurt the people who were being so kind to her, and now she couldn't even take responsibility for fear of them turning on her. England had just spotted another sign of her lack of control, a failing that should not be happening, but was. What was Li doing differently here that caused her powers to go out of control like that? How was it that her powers seemed to have grown? Was the sun here stronger than her own?

"Everyone down!" Norway yelled, extending his arms and shoving down as if that would do it. And…it did. Most of the people standing hit the floor immediately. There was an island counter blocking the pile of nations on the floor, and those who had managed to stand were still behind it. Li, Hungary, and Italy all ducked behind the table. Austria darted out of the room, to one side of the doorway.

England, however, was standing in one of the clear paths of imminent destruction. He held out his hands like a shield, as if he could protect himself like that.

The oven exploded in a fury of flame and sound.

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**Me: Well, I'll bet you lot missed this.**

**Li: Missed what?**

**Me: Us bantering before and after the chapter!**

**Li: I didn't really miss it. I got to sleep, you see. And when I sleep, I don't have to listen to you, or do anything you say.**

**Me: Silly. I control your dreams!**

**Li: ...I hate my life...**

**Please review! Tell me what I'm doing wrong, tell me what I'm doing right! Tell me how to improve! **


	19. Visit

**Me: This chapter marks the start of my Nation Visits Arc, where Li visits various nations and gets to know them better. Li?**

**Li: Karen does not own Avatar or Hetalia, although she owns me, her variations on the Avatar 'verse national personifications, and the rest of my friends back home.**

**Me: And guess what? I would like to once more give props to several people who have contributed to this story in some way, or who have helped inspire me to write more. This is a list including, but not limited to, Sabaku no Koori, katszoa, iTorchic, Alix Cohen, ScoutingForGuys, Somariel, and of course the Hetalia Master. You are all amazing people who can be counted as part of the reason I haven't decided to just stop writing this story altogether.**

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Li fidgeted in the train seat, trying to resist the urge to rub her itching foot. She knew it would just hurt more than it helped…but those bandages were so itchy! Admittedly, Austria was a good physician, but didn't he have anything softer to use?

Oh, right. She'd insisted he use the good ones on England.

How the nation had managed to survive having an oven explode in his face was a mystery to Li. One minute, she had been hiding behind the table as debris and flames shot out around her: the next, it was over, and England was yelling for Austria to call the "fire department" (apparently they had a whole profession of people whose only job was to put out fires). England had a few burns, and some cuts and bruises from the debris, but all in all it was no worse than what those who'd sheltered behind the counter had fared. Li, Hungary, and Italy had had the extra advantage of the table, thus preventing them from getting anything worse than a few scrapes and bruises. Italy had freaked out, but Hungary had calmed him down after a bit. Romano had appeared afterwards, claiming to have been chased by brigands who wanted his pasta.

Of course, the kitchen itself had been, more or less, completely destroyed. After Austria had finished blaming Prussia, he had realized that neither he nor Li could stay in the house until the kitchen had been completely replaced. So, he'd spoken to some of the nations (who were being held for questioning by the police until their status was brought up, at which point they all went back to Austria's to retrieve their things), and come to a solution.

_"Li, I will be staying at Germany's for a month, as that's how long the workmen think it will take. You will be taking a tour of the world to familiarize yourself with the different nations. Everyone has agreed to this. I have already gotten you a ticket to Italy: you leave tomorrow morning."_

It had been three days since the kitchen incident. Austria had spent that time arranging for workers to come and repair the kitchen. A surveyor had come in the day after, and had immediately pointed out that part of the house's structural integrity had been compromised by the explosion. More work than originally thought would be needed, which meant more time as well. Fortunately, Austria simply needed to make a few phone calls to make arrangements for Li. And it seemed the nations were all eager to meet the mysterious girl who had appeared so strangely and thrown America through a window. That last part might explain most of the curiosity…

So here she was, on a train to Rome, Italy, which Hungary claimed was the most beautiful city in the world. Li wasn't sure about that—in this world, perhaps it was beautiful, but she knew that nothing could ever compare to the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se, or the lovely landscapes of the Fire Nation. Maybe Rome was beautiful—but surely her own home had places of indescribable loveliness that far surpassed this place. Perhaps she was just biased towards her own home, which she missed more than anything right now.

"Are you sure you'll be all right once I drop you off with the Italies?" Hungary asked yet again. The female nation was sitting across from Li in their train compartment, a book in her hands. She had insisted on being allowed to take Li to Italy, to help familiarize her with public transportation (Li had decided to make the Fire Nation sound much more backwards than it really was, resulting in her being unable to tell them they did indeed have trains in the Fire Nation).

"Yes, I'll be fine, Hungary." Li nodded. "There's no need to worry. I like Italy already, and Romano's kind of funny. We'll get along."

"Well, I suppose." Hungary shifted in her seat. "But remember, you haven't met Vatican or Seborga yet. They live with the Italies, so you'll have to meet them while you're there. Seborga is a lot like the Italies, but Vatican can be a little…well…he's very devout."

"If we don't agree, I'll just avoid him to make it easier on everyone." Li assured the worried nation. "But I'll make an effort to get along." Li sighed, thinking of the spirits everyone believed in back home. Her own views on spiritual matters were…complicated. Yes, she had personally met several spirits while travelling with the group jokingly named "Team Avatar." But she always had the feeling that they were just the tip of the metaphysical iceberg. Besides, she loved other cultures: it was why the Professor (no other name, just the title, that's what he liked to go by) and her were such good friends. He was an archaeologist, going around the world to learn about ancient civilizations from all four nations. His partner, an expert in ancient linguistics, could be difficult at times, but she was generally likeable.

They lapsed into silence after that, and Hungary returned her attention to her book. Li glanced out the window occasionally, but she didn't care much about what the countryside was like. Picturesque towns and fields flashed by, full of people and livestock and crops. Even the designs of the buildings seemed utterly foreign to Li, who had once thought she knew everything she could about how people lived. Now she was seeing architecture nobody in the Four Nations had ever dreamed of before, advanced technologies that not even the Fire Nation could match. She'd been raised thinking her nation was the greatest of all: now she was seeing evidence that seemed to contradict the words she'd heard all her life. It was…odd. Not a good feeling.

Li started wishing for something, anything, to do. Hungary had her book, but Li couldn't read whatever symbols they used for writing. She could try talking, but that would undoubtedly lead to Hungary asking her about her home, and Li just wasn't sure she could lie convincingly enough to assuage Hungary's curiosity. All right, so she was a crappy liar, she knew that: didn't mean she couldn't lie on demand. She just…always gave herself away, somehow, either by stumbling over her words or letting her nervousness show enough to clue in even the most oblivious of observers that she was lying through her teeth.

Maybe she should have asked for some paper and a brush set. At least then she could try to write or draw something to amuse herself, though the train's occasional rattle would probably tip over an inkwell. Still, it would be something more than just sitting there and thinking about things that would undoubtedly make her depressed before too long.

"Is there a bathroom on the train?" Li asked abruptly. Hungary raised an eyebrow, then nodded.

"It should be at the end of the car." She instructed. "Want me to show you?" Li shook her head no—she didn't think she would get lost in the somewhat-small train car—and left their compartment.

It was silent, except for the low rumbles and clatters of the train moving along its tracks. In both directions, the train was empty. Li took a moment to remember which way was the back of the train, then made her way towards it, trying not to peer into the different compartments as she went along. However curious she was, these people deserved their privacy.

The bathroom was much smaller than the ones Li had seen before, though since it was in a train it probably couldn't be much larger anyways. Li turned the water on and splashed some of the warm liquid onto her face. Her head felt like someone had clamped a vice over it and was slowly turning the knob to tighten it, applying more and more pressure each minute. Gritting her teeth, Li put a hand on either side of her head and pressed, not entirely sure why she was doing so, but remembering something vague about her Firebending Master doing so whenever Li or Huo did something incredibly foolish. How or why it worked, Li did not know, but it couldn't hurt.

Hey, it actually helped a little. Li eased the pressure she was applying to her head, and let out a deep, steady breath. She started one of her most basic breathing exercises, steady inhales and exhales, to relax herself as best she could. In fact…how long had it been since Li had practiced any of her Firebending forms? Not since she had arrived, in the very least…and it had been over a week by now! Great, something else for Ru to get angry at her for when she finally found Li. If Li had had her way, she would have stayed in Vienna, to make things easier on Ru…but really, if the nations wanted her to tour their homes, there wasn't anything she could do about it. Besides, she was curious. This world's nations, or at least the ones she had seen, were so incredibly different in ways Li hadn't even thought of before now. She was understandably curious as to what their homes were like—what new things she might learn here.

Her little exercise done, Li exited the bathroom. She was tired and wanted nothing more than to sleep. Each step seemed to drain her more and more, until she was merely raising one foot in front of the other for the simple purpose of reaching the train car and falling asleep.

She slid the compartment door open and half-collapsed onto her seat. Hungary looked up in surprise, and a look of concern crossed her face. "Are you all right, Li?" She leaned forward to place a hand on Li's forehead. "You…you seem a bit warm…"

"Mm? Just tired…" Li yawned, and rolled her shoulders to work out a few kinks. "You mind if I nap a bit while the train's going? It's been a long…week."

"Oh, okay." Hungary smiled knowingly. "You go ahead and sleep, then. I'll wake you up when we—" The nation paused, seeing Li was already asleep. With a small chuckle, she returned to her book.

* * *

_Li was floating in the air, between the clouds and the moon. She couldn't see her body at all, even when she looked, but that didn't disturb her for some reason. After all, she was only visiting._

_She looked down, and saw a lone ship sailing in the black waters below. A simple will of moving towards it, and she was, gliding through the air like an Airbender on his glider. Occasionally she felt a gust of wind, but it only blew through her, not affecting her course at all._

_On the deck of the ship, an old Fire Nation scouting vessel, left over from the War, a man in his late twenties was standing on the deck. He was looking up at the stars, smiling softly as their faint light lit up his face. Li landed next to him, and studied him in curiosity. Long black hair, pulled into a ponytail. A strong, prominent jaw, with clearly-defined cheekbones and a regal nose. Every inch of this man screamed he was a ruler, a leader, yet his clothing was slightly worn for all its elaborate design._

_Li knew this man. She opened her mouth to say his name, but no sound came out. Even this didn't disturb her: on the contrary, she was expecting it, the actions of opening her mouth and moving her tongue and lips and jaw and blowing air out through her windpipe mere ingrained reactions of seeing him. A hand she couldn't see reached up on instinct to touch his shoulder, but even though she grasped it with all her might, he didn't notice._

_Remember…this is only a visit…_

_"How are the stars, Captain?" A voice called out. Both Li and the man turned to see a woman in her mid-twenties stride up from the lower decks, a flirtatious flick to her hips. "As beautiful as you remember them from last night?"_

_"More so, Heitun." The captain laughed. "But you're much more so."_

_"Ooh, flattery? One would think you a King." Heitun laughed, a rich, hearty sound that belied amusement and mirth. "Maybe I shouldn't have ended things between us." She reached the railing, on the side of the man opposite Li's, and leaned against them to stare across the water. "But in the end, I know it was for the best. Your heart can never belong to any one woman, save the one who stole it years ago."_

_"Heitun, if you really wanted things to work out…" The captain hesitated, then put a hand on his companion's shoulder. "No, you just enjoy having fun too much. We never could have been more. And we're both glad we weren't, aren't we?"_

_"Maybe." Heitun giggled, and put her hand over the captain's. "But we'll never know, will we? Not while you come out here every night to look at the stars, and remember that little promise…"_

_"Whenever the stars are out, I'll trace the constellations, and think of her. I know." The captain smiled at memories of days long ago, even as Li mouthed the words herself. "Do you think she's looking at them now too? Thinking of me? Even though I keep leaving her without saying good-bye?"_

_"Of course she is, Captain." Heitun turned her gaze up to the moon. "And my baby sister is with her, keeping her safe, like she always has and always will. Like I always will do for you, even if you don't need my help these days." A brief smile flickered across her face. "We're both suckers for our little sisters, aren't we, Aizo?"_

_"Mm-hm." Aizo chuckled, hand straying to the pocket of the coat he wore. Li remembered that coat, the smells of salt and sea and smoke that clung to it. Her brother pulled out a withered flower, and if Li could have done anything other than passively observe, she would have choked back a sob of remembrance. It was the fire lily she gave him just before he left, ten years ago, after the death of his mother Bao Jin. Li's mind flickered back to that night, recalling the warm light of the candle in her bedroom, the soft squeeze of her brother's arms around her, the muffled sobs accompanying tears that wet her shoulder as she tried to comfort her half-brother. Could she have stopped him from going, if she had spoken, if she had cried the tears she denied herself even then?_

_Aizo kissed the flower gently, and Li could imagine she felt a ghost of the kiss on her own cheek. Sorrow, still fresh despite the passage of years, sprang up in her, and her throat closed in on itself. She just wanted to wrap her arms around her brother and have him do the same, and bask in the safety of his arms and pretend she was a little child again. _

_"Whenever the stars are out, I'll trace the constellations, and think of you…" She murmured the promise they had made. Aizo and Heitun stiffened, looking around for something, and Li realized they must have heard her voice. How they could have, when she was only a visitor, eluded her at first, but then she recalled Ru's words._

There's also the ties between family, the ties between friends, the ties of love…

_There were ties binding her to Aizo and Heitun, family and love and friendship. Li didn't know much about these ties, being only recently introduced to the concept, but she supposed there had to be some sort of power in them. Ru had introduced her to the general thought that people could form bonds between themselves: now she was wondering if they were more potent than she had originally thought. Could these bonds connect her to her friends, bind them all together somehow, in a way that even distance and worlds could not separate? Philosophy had never been Li's strong point, but she was starting to wonder if maybe it would be more prevalent in her mind after this encounter._

_"Li?" Aizo whispered hesitantly. Li opened her mouth eagerly, trying to respond, but found herself unable to make a noise again. Something clenched around her chest and stomach, like a giant's hand closing about her, and if Li had needed to breathe she would have gasped for air. She was drawn back, into the sky, beyond the clouds, until she was standing on an invisible surface just below the moon._

_"Hello?" Li cried, finding she could speak once more. "What is this? What's going on?" Her mind whirled—what had she been thinking of earlier? She was just a "visitor"? _

_"You're being troublesome." A woman's voice sighed. "Just stay where you are and don't think about your home much. I thought this might make you settle down a bit, but it seems even spirits get it wrong. Now be a good little Princess, and wake up. Wake up. Wake…"_

* * *

"—up, Li." Hungary gently shook Li's shoulder. "We're here. Rome, Italy, as promised."

"Hnn…? Oh, thanks." Li sat up and rubbed at her eyes blearily. "Wow, how long was I out?"

"A while." Hungary smiled. "You missed the approach to Rome, but I didn't want to wake you. I thought you probably needed the sleep, seeing as you're about to spend three days with the Italies. But you'll get the gist of it the city on their tour."

"Oh, I'm sure it'll be great." Li stretched her arms out over her head, then lowered them slowly behind her to warm the muscles up. "Italy seems really adorable, and Romano's sweet. He's a bit weird, though, but I guess that's just to be expected. And I guess it'll be nice to meet those two others who live with them…er, what were their names again?"

"Seborga and Vatican City." Hungary held out a hand to help Li up. Li accepted it, not wanting to seem rude. "And I guess Seborga's a lot like the Italies, but I'm not sure how to describe Vatican without sounding prejudiced. He's got a long history of being filled with corrupt officials, and being harsh with some of the other nations. But he has a good heart, really, and does want to make things better in the world." The two took Li's baggage down from a rack overhead, and Hungary led the way out of the compartment towards the door out of the traincar.

"I'm sure we'll get along." Li shrugged. "Hungary, don't worry. I can stand most kinds of people. Those I can't stand, I can avoid." There were no windows in the hallway between compartments, and Li hadn't bothered to pay attention to what was beyond the window just after waking up. She was starting to wish she had. Hungary had given Rome high praise earlier, before she fell asleep, and she was wondering just how much of it was true.

"Here we are." Hungary opened the door, and her and Li stepped off the train onto a platform.

Li's first thought was that it was warmer here than it was in Vienna. Where there had been snow and ice in Austria's capital, the capital of Italy was filled with sunlight and flowers. Houses with stucco or red-brick walls and red-tile roofs stretched out over several hills that Li could see immediately, and she would have bet good money there were more behind her. Wide streets lined with inviting homes stretched out, twisting and curving occasionally to disappear behind a building.

"Li! Hungary!" Italy called from a little ways down the platform. He rushed over, grinning broadly. Before Li or Hungary could do anything, he had thrown himself at Li in a glomp.

Instead of attacking Italy as she had America, Li let out a short laugh and ruffled Italy's hair. He was taller than her, but she smiled at him like he was a child and returned his hug affectionately. "Hey Italy. Nice to see you."

"Wha—what about you throwing people who touch you out a window?" Hungary gasped. "You didn't give America a chance to react!"

"Well, he's more…uh…"Li hesitated, looking over Italy's shoulder at the other nation. "Italy's just less threatening to me, I guess." She then mouthed, _He's like a little kid!_ at Hungary, hoping she got the message. Hungary did, it seemed, because she nodded knowingly and smiled. Italy didn't notice the women's exchange, and released Li to grasp her upper arms and give her a brilliant grin.

"Ve~, it's great to see you again, Li!" Italy declared. "Fratello and Seborga are back at home, cooking pasta to welcome you! We cleaned the whole house all day, too! I had to call Germany and ask for help when the vacuum tried to eat the curtains, but he fixed it like he always does!" Li remembered what a vacuum was from Hungary's lessons three days prior, but couldn't figure out how one could eat curtains. Did it have a tiny animal living inside of it that liked to eat curtains? Because from what she could remember, they didn't have mouths…

"Italy, maybe you should let go of Li…just in case." Hungary advised, a small waver to her voice. "After all, America didn't fare too well when he hugged her…" The reminder made both Li and Italy pause for a moment, remembering how America had gone flying out a window for merely hugging Li. Both released each other at the same time, Li because she didn't want to risk hurting Italy on accident, Italy because the reminder had rekindled his fear of Li. Both looked guilty for a minute, as if they had done something wrong, before Hungary laughed. "Oh, you're probably safe. But I think Li needs her space."

"Hey, I don't mind." Li objected. "Italy's cute." He brightened at that. "Plus, he's so trusting, how could anybody even dream of hurting him?" She gave him a warm smile, and he gave her an adorable grin. He reminded her so much of her little brother…not that thing that looked like him, acted like him a little when it suited it, that Li had seen at Russia's house. Italy was like the Kuzon Li remembered, sweet and kind and warm, always smiling and happy.

"Ve~, let's go to my house, then!" Italy suggested. "The pasta should be ready soon! And I want to show Li around Rome tomorrow, so she should get some rest before then!"

"Oh, I would love to see more of Rome!" Li exclaimed. She had the feeling it was just as lovely as what she could see now, if not more so. Of course, it didn't compare to Ba Sing Se for beauty or size (could _any_ city compare to the Impenetrable City?), but it was wondrous enough. Li hadn't seen architecture like this in Russia's city—and there was no snow on the ground, and everything was warm! Austria had shown her a map of "Europe"—the continent they were on, apparently—and pointed out where Italy was located, further south than most other countries, save for a "Spain" and a "Greece."

"I think Italy has the right idea." Hungary advised. "We should go to his house for the night. Then he can show you around tomorrow after I leave. Oh, and Romano mentioned while we were talking on the phone yesterday that he wanted to show you Sicily."

"That sounds lovely." Li smiled. She was enjoying her time as a guest of Italy's already.

* * *

"Are you sure?" Germany asked once more. "There's no doubt?"

"I'm afraid these scientists are some of the best in the world." Austria sighed. "If they say the material is made from an unknown plant, then it is made from an unknown plant. And they ran the cloth against all known types, and all the fibrous plant materials they could think of. There is some correlation between it and silkworm thread, but it is softer, slightly coarser, and much, much more insulative."

"They were able to determine all this from her coat?" Germany sighed. "I will never doubt your scientists again. How were you able to convince them to run these tests, though?"

"I…forwarded them some money." Austria answered evasively. There was the silence of disbelief from Germany's end, and he relented. "And I told them we are the Special International Criminal Investigation Squad."

"I…see." Germany replied. Austria could just see him placing a hand on his forehead. "So what does this mean about Li?"

"For starters?" Austria resisted the urge to put a hand to his own head. "That Li is from an unknown region where she somehow became irradiated with an unknown form of energy, and which contains flora—or fauna—unique to that region. Due to a certain conversation I overheard between her and Hungary, animals which we would consider 'normal' are virtually nonexistent at her home, but strange animals that are crosses of normal animals are common. I'm still not sure if I believe her on that matter." No indeed—but she had sounded so serious…

"I will make further inquiries to my sources in the German government." Germany promised. "They might find something we've missed. In the meantime, did Li depart for Italy safely?"

"Worried for Italy?" Austria sighed. "I sent Hungary with her, to ensure minimum chaos ensued. Besides, Hungary promised to call me as soon as they arrived at Italy's house with an update—ah." A beeping noise sounded on his end of the phone. "That must be her now. I will call you back with details." He ended the call with Germany, and switched to Hungary's call.

Germany closed his cell phone reluctantly. He was still worried about Italy—naïve, innocent Italy, who trusted everyone that didn't immediately strike him as scary. But he was also worried about Li. Nobody else had been able to speak with her when she was so…vulnerable. It made him wonder what she had been through, to suddenly drop her veneer of confidence and revert to a scared, lonely girl in the midst of strangle people and things.

She was indeed a mystery.

* * *

**Me: This is the part of the chapter where Li and I banter meaninglessly.**

**Li: Forget it. Go watch your crime shows.**

**Me: I don't wanna! Actually, I wanted to ask people about future story arcs.**

**Li: Why?**

**Me: Because Sabaku no Koori raised an interesting point. Do people think Gakuen Hetalia is more crack on Himaruya's part, or can it be serious? I want to explore as many parts of Hetalia as I can: not just Gakuen Hetalia, but also Nekotalia and Nyotalia. Come on, wouldn't you like to see Male!Li? Better known as Lee?**

**Li: NO.**

**Me: Come on. He's pretty cool.**

**Li: He's horrible. And I cannot stand him. Why you and the Fair One ever decided to create genderbent versions of me and my friends...**

**Me: Because it's incredibly funny? Because I find Fem!Huo (Lien Kim) hilarious? Because Lee is a-**

**Li: IF YOU SAY IT I WILL MURDER YOU.**

**Me: Not working.**

**Li: Then...I'll...show you a picture of Si riding a cow holding a needle!**

**Me: That's your phobia!**

**Li: Hm...then... *holds up picture***

**Me: O.o...*twitch***

**Li: Ha! I have some modicum of power over you! *gunshot blows photo away* o.O?**

**Me: Thanks SatW Finland!**

**Li: Perkele...**

**Me: Anyways, tell me what you think about Gakuen Hetalia, Nekotalia, and Nyotalia, and if you think they're legit enough in terms of straight Hetalia to make good (if brief) story arcs. I really wanna explore all parts of Hetalia in this story, but if you guys don't think I should...**

**Li: Also! Reviews result in me getting a cookie! Karen's been starving me, so if you give me a cookie, I will live longer and this story will be done faster! So REVIEW! Please! For the love of the Fire Lord, review!**

**Me: Reviews are also a great way for me to know what I'm doing right, and what I'm doing wrong. So if you see anything I should work on, let me know! It'll result in Li getting more cookies!**

**Li: FOOOOOD! *stomach rumbles***


	20. Earthquake

**Li: Guess who doesn't own Avatar? Or Hetalia? Karen, that's who.**

**Me: But I own YOU! :D**

**Li: Don't you have something to do?**

**Me: No.**

**Li: *sigh of frustration* It involves 9AM? And 1PM? Today? You spent all of yesterday preparing, when you weren't watching Law & Order: SVU?**

**Me: It's not ringing any...O.O *grabs book, starts reading***

**Li: That's right. Study for your finals.**

**Me: Meanwhile, enjoy this chapter! I'm pretty it'll tell you _exactly_ what timeframe the story's in!**

**Li: I still don't see why you wanted to stay up so late, just to post this stupid chapter...**

**Me: For Sabaku no Koori, of course!**

**Li: *groans***

* * *

"Ve~, and this is the Sistine Chapel!" Italy announced proudly, throwing his arms out to encompass the entire structure. Li gasped up at the ceiling, covered with an amazing array of paintings. There was certainly nothing like this at home! Not that they couldn't reach the ceilings of their buildings, but the idea simply didn't fit with most of their designs. Seeing this impressive work, though, Li was starting to get ideas for when the war with the Tóngyī ShÌjiè was over…

"It was painted by the artist Michaelangelo." Romano added from his spot beside Li. When the Italies had decided to give Li a tour of Rome, Seborga had decided to stay at home and sleep in. Li had yet to see Vatican, who had claimed that his joints were giving him trouble and requested to stay in his room. Italy had said that he was always like that, and to enjoy it while it lasted. However, Li had a few problems with this. One of the major points she'd been raised with that some of the nations didn't seem to share was unconditional respect for the elderly. Not that everyone followed that tenet exactly, not even Li. She'd played her share of pranks on advisors her father had that she disliked. Still, she was feeling anxious about the Vatican. Hungary hadn't exactly been prejudicial in her description of him, but it seemed like the sort of topic everyone would have a strong opinion on. How could Li know who to believe?

"Michaelangelo was mostly a sculptor, though." Italy continued, oblivious to Li's turmoil. "His most famous work, David, was hailed as one of the finest pieces of the Renaissance. Oh, but you don't know about the Renaissance, do you?" Li shook her head, still taking in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. "It was a time when everybody started to paint really pretty pictures and wonder about the world. Michaelangelo was just one of a bunch of my people who took part in it."

"Yeah, the Renaissance started in Veneziano's part of the country." Romano groused. "I was still living with that bastard Spain, so I didn't get the Renaissance until later. And even _then_, I didn't get as much as everyone else did!" He started to mutter angrily to himself as Italy tugged on Li's arm.

"David's in Florence, but I can still tell you all about the Sistine Chapel!" Italy was saying. "See that picture, there? That's…" And he started to babble about the pictures on the ceiling. Li only heard half of the words, as she was much more interested in staring at the paintings than listening to what kind of brush strokes or paints were used to make them.

Movement in her peripheral caught Li's eye, and she half-turned to see a little girl skipping along the side of the pews, clutching a loop of beads. "Hey, Italy." She touched the nation's arm, and he turned to her with a puzzled look in his eyes. "Do you know what that girl over there is holding?"

"Hm? Oh, that's a rosary!" Italy answered cheerfully. "It's a Catholic thing. I could tell you more about it, but _fratello_ knows Catholicism better than me. _Fratello_, tell Li what a rosary is!"

"Hm? Oh, fine." Romano seemed to preen a bit, before he turned to Li with a small grin. "A rosary is a string of beads, usually in the form of a circle, that Catholics use for prayers."

"Oh, kinda like priest beads." Li nodded. Romano frowned in confusion.

"What're priest beads? They're Catholic—rosaries are nothing like your priest beads!" He declared. Li squinted her eyes and tilted her head to give Romano a puzzled look, but let him continue. "We believe that, by praying over the beads, we encourage world peace and avert natural disasters." Romano grinned proudly, as if he had just done something impressive.

"Does it work?" Li asked.

"Well, we haven't had any big natural disasters for a while now." Romano shrugged. "At least, nothing that gets worldwide attention." Italy's cell phone began to ring, and he answered it with his usual "Ve~, this is Italy!"

"Oh, so, what spirits do Catholics pray to?" Li asked curiously. Italy, listening to the person on the other end of the phone, was getting increasingly agitated.

"Huh? Catholics don't pray to spirits!" Romano gave Li a condescending look. "Catholics pray to saints! We believe that there are people who are so holy, God has given them a special place in Heaven, and that different saints rule over different aspects of life."

"Okay, so…which spirit does that?" Li made a gesture with her hand to indicate that Romano go on, but he merely gawked at her. Italy, off to one side, was starting to panic, speaking rapid Italian into his phone. Neither Li nor Romano noticed.

"Weren't you listening? We don't believe in spirits! We believe in God! God!" Romano shouted the last word, and Li started to wonder if she'd touched a delicate subject with him. "That's what this chapel was built for! To glorify and honor God!"

"O-okay…I guess I just don't know much about the subject…" Li tried to sidestep the matter.

"You bet you don't know much!" Romano proclaimed. "But you know what? I'll be happy to tell you about—"

"JAPAN JUST HAD A HUGE EARTHQUAKE AND EVERYONE'S REALLY WORRIED BECAUSE THEY HAVEN'T SEEN HIM FOR HOURS AND AMERICA'S OUT LOOKING FOR HIM NOW BUT GERMANY SAYS HE MAY BE HURT AND _FRATELLO_, LI, WE HAVE TO HELP JAPAAAAAAAAN!" Italy burst out. Li and Romano froze. Japan…oh yeah…Li still had to apologize to him…she should get to that…

"AAAAHHH! JAPAAAAN!" Romano freaked out, drawing the attention of those who had been able to miss Italy's outburst. "HE'S IN TROOOOOUBLE! WE HAVE TO HELP HIM! JAPAAAAAN!"

"Um…calm down, you guys…we need to stay calm…" Li tried to speak over the wailing of the two Italies. They had begun to run around in circles, too, which only made it harder to catch them (with the intent to calm them down, of course).

"Japan's gonna die! He's hurt so bad he's gonna diiiie!" Italy screamed.

"Hey! Wait! Veneciano! What were you doing talking to that potato bastard?" Romano grabbed his brother's collar. "I've told you not to talk to him! What the hell are you doing still talking to him?"

"Ahh! I'm sorry, fratello, but he's actually really fun when you get to know him!" Italy wailed. "Please please please don't hit meeee!" Li noticed Italy's still-open phone on the ground nearby, and picked it up. The screen had a picture of Germany on it—was it still connected to his phone? Hoping it was, she put the device to her ear, like she'd seen Hungary and Italy do.

"Hello?" She ventured, feeling incredibly stupid for talking into a machine. Like it could hear her! Though, if she believed Hungary and Italy (who had no reason to lie to her about these things), whoever was on the other end would hear her. If there even was anybody on the other end…

"Ah…guten tag." Germany's voice came from the machine, and Li nearly dropped it in surprise. "Is Italy all right?"

"Yeah…he's just running around freaking out." Li answered, voice shaky. "Er…is Japan really in trouble?"

"We don't know yet. America ran off, declaring he'd be the hero and save the day, and nobody's heard from him or Japan since." Germany sounded frustrated. "The other European countries are sending aid over currently. Italy had yet to be told, and no one else wanted to, so since he is my friend, I volunteered. Could you attempt to put him on?"

"Umm…he's still running around screaming…" Li glanced at the nation, who was waving his arms and shouting about Japan being about to die, interspersing his words with Italian. "How can I calm him down? Offer him pasta?"

"Put the phone on speaker." Germany advised.

"What's a speaker?" Li looked around. "And do I just put this thing on one, or do I have to attach it somehow?" Germany made a noise Li herself sometimes made when she was expected to do too much in a short amount of time. "Or am I getting that completely wrong?"

"There should be a button with a picture of a megaphone…a triangle and some curved lines coming from one end." Germany revised his words, and Li pulled the device away from her ear to examine it. She found the button, and pushed it, then put it back to her ear.

"Um…is it working?" She asked.

"Hold the phone out towards Italy." Germany instructed, voice booming in Li's ear. She squeaked at the unexpected level of sound, then pointed the screen of the phone towards Italy. He was still running around and panicking.

"Okay!" Li shouted, unsure if Germany could hear her.

"ITALY!" Germany's voice, apparently amplified by the pressing of the "speaker" button, burst from the device. "STOP CRYING AND ORGANIZE A GROUP OF RESCUE WORKERS TO GO TO JAPAN!"

"Ve~, Germany!" Italy cried out, stopping in his tracks and turning to the phone. "What do I do? Japan's huuuurt!"

"Stop running around and screaming, for one!" Li would have bet Germany had said that to Italy a thousand times before. "Have you?"

"Yes, Germany, sir!" Italy put his left hand to his forehead. "Just tell me what to do, Germany, sir!"

"For starters, salute with your right hand!" Germany barked. "You started the tradition! You should at least get it right!" Italy hastily switched hands. "You've done it right? Good! Now, calm your brother down and get home to organize sending aid to Japan!"

"Yes sir!" Italy nodded vigorously, then turned to Romano (who was still running around yelling). "_Fratello_! Germany says to get home and organize sending aid to Japan right away!"

"Huh? Why the hell are you listening to that potato bastard, Veneciano!" Romano shouted. "Stop talking to him right now!"

"But _frateeeello_!" Italy wailed.

Germany's sigh was clearly audible over the phone, even though very few people noticed it.

Li had been watching this whole exchange, mostly unsure what was going on. The whole scene had the air of familiarity to it, like actors in a play they had performed so many times they could do it in their sleep. She wondered if this happened a lot. It certainly seemed like they did, judging by how they seemed to be following silent cues.

"Umm…you two…" Li tried to get a word in, but Romano started yelling at his brother about how bad Germany was. She was a little interested in just what Romano thought of the nation, though his vocabulary included several words Li hadn't known before. Making notes of their usage, in case she found the occasion to swear abusively at someone, she prepared herself to really get their attention.

"STOP YELLING AT EACH OTHER AND LISTEN TO GERMANY ALREADY!" Li bellowed. Both Italies—and pretty much everyone in the Sistine Chapel—stopped making all noises and turned to stare at Li. Her voice started to echo around in the building. All the eyes on her felt like spotlights on a dark night, when she was trying to sneak out of the palace, or maybe when she was trying to escape an enemy stronghold. She felt a blush creeping over her face, fiery red.

"Ve~" Italy looked sheepish. "Th-that was scary, Li…"

"S-s-sorry…" Li looked away, feeling her blush cover her entire face. "B-but, we really should…you know…go back to the house…like he said…" Romano had frozen entirely, and was staring at Li like she was about to jump up and bite him. Which, by the way, she would never dream of doing. Around people she didn't know. If she was still with Team Avatar, and Huo was being, well, _Huo_…then all bets were off. And it would probably only take five minutes for her to snap.

"Ah—Li's right. We need to get back to the house." Romano pulled himself together somewhat, and brushed some imaginary dirt from the shoulder of his suit (which, as he had informed Li earlier, was extremely expensive and fashionable). "Veneziano! Calm down and let's go."

"Okay, _fratello_!" Italy grinned. Li stared on in confusion. She would never understand the Italies…

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Several hours later, after arriving at the Italies' house, and a few quick lessons on how to use a rotary phone ("_Fratello_ likes them better than newer phones"), Li was once more dialing the number Romano had told her was Japan's. Romano himself had left the house to go and work with the Italies' boss on the aid they were sending. Italy had decided to make pasta to calm himself down, and was humming in the kitchen happily. Li thought he might have completely forgotten about the earthquake.

"Mushi mushi?" A voice answered the phone. Li, not expecting an answer after so many failed calls, didn't answer right away. "Um, Italy? Why have you called me so many times?"

"Oh, uh, this isn't Italy. It's Li." Li caught herself. "Romano told me to keep dialing your number until you answered, or he told me to stop. He's off organizing some aid right now, and Italy's in the kitchen making pasta to calm himself down."

"I see. Please convey my thanks for their concern." Japan answered seriously. There was a short, awkward pause as Li waited for him to say something more and he seemed to be waiting on her.

"So, uh, what's up?" Li asked weakly, then wanted to hit herself for such a stupid question. He was dealing with an earthquake, that's what was up! "Er, that is, how are things over there?"

"Fairly well." Japan replied. "We are used to earthquakes, and relief efforts began soon after the quake. There are a few troubles in several areas, but we expect to recover quickly enough. I myself have been extremely busy aiding those injured and homeless, so I have been unable to contact any other nations so far. This is the first break I have had for a while now, and I was planning on using it to contact other nations and ensuring they do not panic."

"Oh…umm, that reminds me…" Li recalled something Germany had said. "Apparently America ran off to 'save' you and 'be the hero.' Have you seen him?"

"I have not." Japan sighed. "But I should not be surprised that he did so. Only a fool would rush into this sort of situation…" He muttered. Li was puzzled, but kept quiet. "Anyways, please pass along to the Italies my thanks for their concern, but tell them that I am fine and dealing with the situation. They may send aid if they wish, but I know what I am doing and am currently uninjured and working towards recovery. I shall keep my eye out for America, and if he appears I will explain the situation to him and send him home. Good day." There was a ringing from the other end of the phone, and Li guessed he must have hung up.

"Li, were you talking to someone just now?" Italy poked his head out from the kitchen door, a bit of sauce smearing his cheek.

"Yeah, I reached Japan. He's doing fine." Li answered. "Turns out he's not as bad off as we thought. He sends his thanks for your concern, and would like you to know that he's unhurt and working on his relief efforts."

"Ve~! That's great news!" Italy cheered. He rushed over to Li and gave her a quick hug, then took his cell phone from his pocket. "I'm going to call Germany and tell him!"

"Okay, just don't burn your pasta." Li joked. Italy's head shot up in alarm, and he dashed back into the kitchen. "Or…yeah…okay…" The doorbell (ha! Li knew what that odd music was now!) rang, and Li headed for the front door to answer it. Whoever it was had plenty of patience, because Li forgot which door from the dining room (her previous position) led to the front of the house, and she got slightly delayed by a cat that insisted on a pet before it let her walk by without it trying to trip her.

"Hello—" Li began before a pair of arms closed around her.

"ROMANO! ARE YOU OKAY?" A voice with a strange accent to it demanded. "I HEARD ABOUT JAPAN AND CAME OVER RIGHT WAY TO SEE IF YOU WERE OKAY AND I BROUGHT TOMATOES AND hey you're not Romano…"

That was all he was able to get out before he collided with a brick wall across the street.

* * *

**Me: Wow. Wonder what day this happened on...**

**Li: *sarcasm* Oh, I do wonder.**

**Me: Well, you know the drill. Tell me what I'm doing wrong/right! I can't improve if I don't get reviews!**

**Li: Nor will I be fed!**


	21. Bioparco

**Li: *wearing cat ears and a tail, looking very grumpy***

**Me: Sabaku no Koori is to blame for Li's current attire. She gave me _ideeeeeas..._**

**Li: I hate you...Karen doesn't own Hetalia or Avatar. And she posted this later in the day than she intended because she slept in.**

**Me: I had a wierd dream, too...why would Irwin from Billy and Mandy be at an SCA event? And time was passing way too fast to be normal...**

**Li: _You're_ not normal.**

**Me: This is true. But I usually manage to function rather well, despite.**

**Li: "Despite"?**

**Me: There is the occasional loss of function...mostly when the Destroyer of Worlds is around...**

**Li: ...Do I wanna know?**

**Me: He was the basis for Si. He dated the Fair One. HE'S FLIPPING SCARY. O.O**

**Li: Basis for Si? O.O**

**?: While they're freaking out, enjoy the chapter.**

**Me: WE NAMED SI "DEATH" FOR A REASON!**

**?: Please ignore them.**

* * *

Li rushed the plate of pasta into the dining room, and set it before a still-sore Spain. He'd laughed off being thrown into a brick wall, and insisted that it was entirely his fault, but Li still felt horrible every time she looked at him. Spain had assured her that nations healed quickly, but the red welts on his face and arm from where he had painfully collided with the bricks were a constant reminder to Li of her screw-up.

"Wow, Ita! You make the best pasta!" Spain exclaimed, twisting a forkful of pasta and bringing it to his mouth. "Mmm…delicious as always! Did you use those tomatoes I brought to make the sauce, too? It tastes really good! Ita's the best cook I've ever met. Don't you agree, Li?"

"Huh?" Li blinked. "Um…yeah, I suppose. Why are you calling him Ita?"

"Oh, back when he was young and everyone thought he was a girl, I started calling him that because it was cute—just like him!" Spain grinned. Coming into the dining room from the kitchen with two more plates of pasta, Italy smiled happily as well. "Then it just sort of stuck, even after he grew up and everyone realized he was a boy. He would have been a cute girl though, don't you think?"

"Uh…I suppose…" Li shuffled her feet awkwardly. "Look…again, I'm sorry about the wall and the throwing…don't think I can apologize enough right now…"

"Oh, I should have looked to see who it was before hugging!" Spain laughed. "You have hair very similar to Romano's, so I just made a split-second decision. I'm really sorry about that. Do you like tomatoes?"

"Er…yeah, tomatoes are okay." Li blinked. "What does that have to do with me and Romano looking alike?"

"Well, when he gets mad, his face starts to look like a tomato." Spain explained cheerfully. "It was more tomato-y when he was little—he had a round, sorta chubby face then, and he would get mad at me a lot, especially when I would poke his face to calm myself down. He was really uncute, but he had his moments." The disturbingly-happy nation slung an arm around Italy's shoulders and gave him a half-hug. "Both of the Italies were adorable!"

"Did you all live together?" Li asked hesitantly, winding some pasta onto her fork carefully. She was still getting the hang of silverware. Italy apparently couldn't use chopsticks to save his life, and Romano wasn't much better, so she didn't have any other options for methods of eating.

"No…but that would have been wonderful…" Spain's eyes misted over, and his breath began to huff a bit. "The three of us…under one roof…all together…"

Li slowly leaned away. She was now fairly sure Spain was a pedophile.

"Anyways, I only had Romano in his youth." Spain looked into the distance dreamily, completely unaware of how Li was taking his wording choice (it included muuuch blushing and burying of the face in the hands). "Ita was under Austria's rule. I tried to win him away once, but he wanted to be with Austria instead of me." Spain looked mournfully at Italy. "You should have come to live with me…it would have been wonderful…"

"Ve…but Austria plays really pretty music, Big Brother Spain!" Italy protested. "I like listening to him! Though I can't do it that often now because I'm my own country…but I still like his music!"

"Itaaaa!" Spain wailed, locking his arms around Italy's neck and starting to cry. Li watched on, by now too overwhelmed by the weirdness of these people to do anything but observe. She watched Spain cry on Italy's shoulder for several moments before turning to her pasta and eating it calmly. Sometimes you just had to pretend everything was okay…

Once all their pasta had been eaten (there was a plate left over in the kitchen for Romano, for whenever he returned), Spain and Italy decided to teach Li how to play a game they called "football," or "soccer." It was a lot like Earthball, only there was no Earthbending, and you were discouraged from hurting your opponent team's players. After several mistakes on Li's part involving Spain getting a ball to the stomach (and once lower) because she forgot she couldn't treat him like he was an experienced Bender with several years of fighting experience, Romano returned.

He spent several minutes yelling at Spain, in Italian, a language Italy said was Spanish, and the tongue Li and the nations seemed to share. When he was done, he insisted he and Li team up against Spain ("Because she's still new to this game and I wanna kick your ass, damnit!").

Finally, when Li had requested they end the game early due to Romano picking up her habit of kicking the ball at Spain's vital regions (purely by accident of course), they realized Italy was nowhere to be seen. "Veneziano! Where the hell are you?" Romano bellowed, running inside. Li and Spain were glancing around the yard, which was rather big and filled with lots of pretty flowers, when there was a horrendous scream from inside.

"Romano!" Spain shouted, dashing inside, with Li hot on his heels. She feared the worst. Had Meiko caught up to her? Was a serial killer stalking the Italies? Had Italy been murdered while they played soccer, and they hadn't heard his screams for help over Romano's derisive laughter and Spain's agony? Why—?

"HE ATE MY PASTA!" Romano wailed as Spain and Li burst into the kitchen. Italy was seated at the table, an empty plate of pasta in his hands. "HE ATE MY GODDAMN PASTA!"

"DON'T CRY, ROMANO! I'LL MAKE IT BETTER!" Spain yelled, a huge grin on his face. Li frowned and leaned away from him. While she was probably a hypocrite by thinking it, she was utterly convinced these nations were all madmen.

"Huh? Spain, you have more—" Romano began eagerly, but Spain jumped in front of him and clasped his hands together like he was holding something. Then he pretended to toss whatever it was onto Romano, and made a "Fusososososo" noise.

"It's a magical charm that makes people feel better!" He announced proudly.

Romano punched him in the face.

* * *

"Why the hell do we have to go to the goddamn zoo?" Romano grumbled, putting his hands in the pockets of his suit. "I know Japan says he's fine, but it's only been a day since the earthquake! We should be organizing aid!"

"_Fratello_, Germany said we should wait for more information before sending Japan anything. In the meantime, I thought we'd go to the zoo today, since you're still angry from yesterday and you wanted to take Li somewhere today anyways."

"Hmph…at least you remembered that much." Romano grumbled. "Spain, stop hugging my arm already!"

"Eh…you're so uncute, Romano…" Spain laughed, not letting go. Romano began to turn red, and Li imagined smoke pouring from his ears. She giggled at the comical mental image, and Spain must have thought she was agreeing with him, because he flashed her a thumbs-up. That only made Romano angrier, and he began to curse at Spain in Italian and Spanish while Spain gently chided him on his language and rubbed a tomato against his face.

"So, what's this zoo we're going to?" Li asked Italy as Romano started shouting at Spain.

"It's the Bioparco, ve~!" Italy announced. "There are lions and tigers and bears and elephants and giraffes and zebras and monkeys and hippos and even a farmyard with farm animals! Then there's a pretty café near the entrance, and a really nice restaurant with great pasta on the roof!"

"Ooh. Are we going to the restaurant later?" Li wondered what a restaurant in Italy would be like. Austria's "coffee shop" had seemed fairly informal to her, but in the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, eating out (except for tea) was a serious and formal affair. Well, for Li it always had been. She supposed commoners were much more casual about such matters, but as the Princess, anything she did in public had to be thought over carefully before she so much as walked out the door. Plans always seemed to fall apart around her, of course, but she still enjoyed the actual planning—and Ru liked to have a vague idea of what Li was going to do next.

"Yes! I'll be taking you to the restaurant!" Romano announced, shoving Spain off of himself and running up next to Li. "Veneciano and Spain will be eating in the café, but I'll treat you to dinner in the restaurant! It's a little formal, but that's why I insisted you wear a dress."

"Oh, that's why." Li let out a sigh of relief. "Good. I was wondering if there was some sort of taboo in Italy for women to wear pants outdoors, or at zoos, or something." She glanced down at the dress Romano had picked out for her from an Italian boutique last night, after Italy declared his intention to take them all to the zoo the next day. He said it was modeled after the Italian flag, with a large white stripe down the center, green on the right side, and red on the left. It had what Romano called a "capelet," to cover the shoulders of the sleeveless dress, and the neckline plunged in a V to end at what Li considered a slightly embarrassing point—three inches below the hollow of her neck. Italy had declared she looked "like the prettiest girl in the world!" and immediately tried to persuade her to have dinner with him that evening, but Romano had butted in and said it was his turn to have Li for the day.

"Anyways, my little brother and Spain are going to help show you around the zoo, and when it gets late we'll go to the restaurant." Romano promised. Li nodded, idly fingering the fabric of the dress. It was a bit coarser than koala sheep wool, one of the finest fabrics in the Fire Nation, but not by much. The weather was cold for what Li thought spring should be like, though it was a far sight warmer than Russia had been. A cool breeze whispered along the streets, which the nations were leading Li along to "prevent air pollution and save oil" (Spain could, apparently, be intelligent when he wanted to).

"Sounds fun." Li smiled a bit at the thought of something so normal as going to a zoo. She'd gone to several before, but those were zoos in the Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom, with animals Li had grown up with all her life. Thanks to a talk with Hungary, she had a fair idea of what animals here were like…but she wasn't entirely sure she believed it just yet. Maybe actually seeing such freaky creatures would help to convince her.

"Hey, there it is!" Spain shouted, pointing. Li turned to see two large stone structures with fencing going out from the sides. An opening in the middle seemed to lead into the zoo proper, with a pretty path leading inside.

"The via Amerigo Vespucci, like I said, tomato bastard." Romano nodded. "See? Don't you ever doubt me about my city again!"

"Your city?" Li blinked.

"Yeah. I'm Italy Romano, for Rome." Romano grinned. "Veneziano is Italy Veneziano, for Venice. That's the main city in the northern half of Italy, like Rome is the main city in the southern half of Italy."

"So…you were named for your major cities?" Li smiled. "That's pretty cool." Romano's chest puffed up, and he developed a smug look on his face at Li's praise.

"What sort of cities do you have in the Fire Nation, ve?" Italy asked Li innocently.

Li stopped in her tracks. Her heart began to pound. She forgot to breathe for a moment. Such an innocent question…but one that brought back memories of home. A home Li feared she might never see again. Italy, oblivious to the distress the question was causing her, tilted his head curiously.

"We…don't have anything very interesting…" Li looked down sadly. Her mind ran over the cities of her world—Ba Sing Se, old-fashioned and beautiful: Freedom City, filled with skyscrapers: the Fire Nation capital, embodying thousands upon thousands of years of history and culture and civilization. Then the ruins of ancient cities, like the capital of the Sun Warriors' great civilization, which died as the Fire Nation rose, or Taku, or the Lost Library of the Knowledge Spirit Wan Shi Tong in the Si Wong Desert that archaeologists had been trying to find for years. No, nothing interesting at all…

"Ve, that's sad." Italy sounded disappointed. "I was hoping maybe once we find out where your home is I could visit it. I'm really curious as to what the Fire Nation is like!"

"Er…the Fire Nation isn't the safest place right now, Italy." Li sighed. "I don't think anyone who doesn't know what's going on should visit. Ever. Unless they bring an army with them to keep them safe."

"Hey, it can't be that dangerous!" Spain protested, coming up between Li and Romano (to Romano's great irritation). "What sort of state is your nation in? You can always tell what a nation is thinking by how the personification acts or feels. Is he sick? Or is it a she?"

"I don't know." Li shrugged. "I've never met the personification of the Fire Nation. There probably isn't one. Trust me, if there was a guy going around saying he was the Fire Nation, I'd know about it. Everyone would."

"Hey! Veneciano! Spain!" Romano snapped. "Stop bugging Li and let's get into the zoo already! People are gonna start staring!"

"Sorry _fratello_!" Italy wailed. Romano sighed in frustration, reached around Spain to grab Li's wrist, and tugged her towards the gates. Li, caught by surprise, stumbled slightly. She regained her balance, and allowed Romano to pull her along, slightly confused by his apparent irritation with his brother and Spain. Spain was just a generally cheerful guy, a nice sort to have around, and Italy was positively adorable. But perhaps being Italy's brother and Spain's former servant had conditioned Romano to see more of their bad sides than their good sides. That was sad.

"Due bigliette, per favore." Romano huffed to a woman behind a window at the gates. She slid two slips of paper under the glass to Romano, and he deposited several slips of paper and coins into the same depression she'd used. "Grazie."

"What about Italy and Spain?" Li glanced over her shoulder as the other two nations walked towards the gate.

"Those bastards can pay for their own damn tickets. This is my treat for today, for you anyways." Romano grumbled. "What would you like to see first? Reptile house, barnyard, the zoo proper?"

"Er…you decide." Li shrugged. "I don't know what kind of animals you have here. We have some pretty…unique breeds, in the Fire Nation."

"Really? Then let's start with the barnyard." Romano decided. "I'm pretty sure most farms have the same kinds of animals…don't they? Cows, pigs, sheep, goat, chicken?"

Cow-pigs, sheep-pigs, chicken-pigs, pig-dogs, and gorilla-goats were what immediately sprang to Li's mind. Since only gorilla-goats weren't actually farm animals, and neither cow-pigs, sheep-pigs, or pig-dogs were native to the Fire Nation, Li gave a nod and vague noise of agreement before Romano escorted her down a path that apparently led to the farm animals. There were lots of trees lining the animals' habitats, presumably to give them privacy, except from the designated viewing areas.

"Here we are." Romano stopped Li and proudly pointed to a large structure with what appeared to be several pens around it. He had yet to release her wrist, but Li was more interested in watching the strange creatures she saw. She vaguely registered Romano saying something, but didn't catch the words, and quickly asked what he had said. "Do you like it?" The nation repeated, a bit annoyed.

"Oh…yeah." Li smiled. "I don't think I recognize most of those animals…could you tell me about them?" Romano swelled up a little with his imagined importance, and began to tell Li everything he knew about horses. It was presented in an extremely unprofessional manner, consisting of multiple slang and swear words, and seemed to be mostly just Romano's opinions of how dirty they were.

"And this is a cow…" He was saying when a huge, smelly monstrosity stuck its wet, snuffly nose into Li's face and _bellowed_.

* * *

"Maybe the cow was just trying to tell you it wanted to be friends, Li!" Italy suggested cheerfully. Li, stuck in the tree she had scaled after the cow "attacked" (It _had_ attacked her! It _had_!), ignored him in favor of eyeing the ground distastefully.

Why she always got stuck in trees was a mystery to Li. She could jump off high ledges and cliffs to land with ease. Flame, she had jumped from higher places than this! Really, she could just let go, allow her body's training to take over, and she would land on her feet.

…But. What if she didn't?

Maybe it had to do with all those times her brother had tried to teach her to climb trees as a child. She'd always wound up stuck halfway, and her brother would have to carry her down. Ever since then, whenever she climbed a tree, she panicked and couldn't get down by herself. It had been very stressful on her friends, particularly Ru, who was the designated "If-Li-has-a-problem-fix-it" person.

"Just drop down." Spain advised happily. "Romano or Ita or I will catch you! Promise!"

"But what if you don't?" Li freaked, clinging to the branch harder. Romano, who had been silent until now, finally opened his mouth.

"You should get down before your dress starts to tear."

Five seconds later, Li landed on a very surprised Spain.

* * *

"Well, that was a fun day." Li commented as the four walked to the Italhome in the cool evening. "I mean, that cow definitely attacked me, no matter what you guys say. But the lions were really cute. What was wrong with those giraffes, though? Those necks…" She shuddered slightly at the memory. Nothing like that existed in her world, to her knowledge at least. Hopefully, she would never find anything like that back home. Such long, grotesque necks…

"Giraffes are pretty common zoo animals, especially in warmer climates like ours." Romano shrugged. "They're from Africa. I think China's convinced they're some sort of good-luck animal or something. Spain, you bastard, get off of me!" The southern half of Italy elbowed the country of Spain in the ribs, causing said country to wince in pain and rub his chest.

"Erm…shouldn't you be nicer to each other?" Li ventured. "Aren't you the personifications of nations? Don't your actions influence your entire countries? Romano, you keep acting like you're about to start a war with Spain!"

"Ve…that's just how they act, Li." Italy assured the girl. "They're actually really close friends! But _fratello_ just acts mean towards Big Brother Spain because that's how he shows him his affection."

"What? Like I have any affection for this tomato bastard!" Romano roared, turning on his brother. "Veneciano, you idiot! This is your fault!"

"Ahh! I'm sorry, fratello!" Italy wailed.

Li watched as another brotherly fight began, and tried to think of how she could stop it. "Er…the food was nice too? And it was great Italy and Spain could join us after all, don't you think, Romano?"

"No!" Romano insisted, starting to shake his brother by the shoulders. "Damnit Veneciano! This was her last day in my city! I wanted to do something goddamn nice! But you two had to ruin it, and I couldn't even try out my charms on her!"

"Huh?" Li put a hand on Romano and Italy's shoulders, gently pushing them apart. "Okay…what's this about trying out your charms on me?"

"Er…" Romano blushed slightly, and looked away. Spain, ever the cheerful and unhelpful friend, chose that moment to pipe up.

"Romano wanted to try flirting! But he's not very good at it. He gets all flustered and stutters." The tomato-obsessed nation wrapped his arms around Romano, who immediately began to struggle and protest in Italian. "Like when Belgium offered to kiss him! He's so cute when he's like that!"

"Big Brother Spain!" Italy cried out, wringing his hands. "Romano doesn't like it when we talk about that! And he didn't want Li to know he was trying to charm her, either! He said he wanted to keep it a secret so he could prove to me that he could have any woman falling for him in minutes! Oh, and he didn't want Li to know, ve…" Romano stiffened as Italy revealed his plans, and Spain paused. Both of them looked over to Li, who looked thoroughly tired at this new revelation.

After perhaps two minutes of silence, she turned and started to walk in the direction she thought they had been going before stopping. "I'm going to the house and getting some sleep." Li muttered.

"But Li…the house is the other way, ve~!"

"Uh…I knew that."


	22. Gone

**Me: Well, this chapter will introduce the rest of Li's friends back in her world and make her go all angsty. I'm sorry about the angst, but it's character development, I swear...**

**Li: I hate your guts.**

**Me: That's been established, mon ami.**

**Li: ...waaaait a minute. "Mon ami" means my love...and implies a male talking to another male. We're both female.**

**Me: And hurrah for crappy French! :D**

**Fair One: No! No hurrah for crappy French! If you need French, come to me! Do not use crappy French!**

**Me: MA-FAIR ONE! *lunges***

**Fair One: *dodges, runs***

**Me: *gives chase***

**Li: Karen does not own Avatar or Hetalia. Now please excuse me while I watch this rather amusing chase scene...**

* * *

_She was visiting again. Li knew she should be angry, or demanding, or something, but all she felt was a passive curiosity about where she was._

_And where exactly was she? It looked like she was flying above the clouds again, like she had last time. A waning moon, still mostly full, filled the night sky above her. Its light on the clouds gave them an unearthly feel, coloring them silvery-white and highlighting their rounded, slightly lumpy forms. Li willed herself down, trying to touch one of them, but her hand passed through it without giving any indication it was interacting with the cloud. As if she was a spirit, wandering the physical world in a ghostly form._

_It occurred to Li that she should be very worried about the situation. But everything felt like it was happening through a fog, a dream, and Li felt her emotions only distantly. This time she could see herself, a see-through figure clad in the pajamas she'd pulled on before going to bed. Definitely better than being an invisible wraith floating around, but being a spirit floating around really wasn't much more helpful. Li would rather be able to physically affect the world, instead of observe it._

_A part in the clouds was coming up: Li willed herself lower, and gently passed through the gap. Below her was the Northern Ocean. Icebergs and chunks of frozen ice littered the water, which looked black in the scarce light of the moon and starts._

_But…there had been clouds…_

_Li swooped down low, until she was nearly skimming along the surface of the water. Cliffs of ice loomed up ahead, and she found herself aiming for an opening. This scenery was familiar…hadn't she seen it before?_

_On the wall of the Northern Water Tribe, looking south towards her nation?_

_She flew into the gap, over the wall she'd stood on two weeks ago—two weeks, had it really been so short a time? Before her stretched a flat plain of ice, with canals extending back towards a second wall that protected a city of ice. Her path took her over the field of ice, into the city, to rest on a bridge where a group of people were standing. Eleven people, to be exact, all looking grim and sad._

_"So what do we do now?" One, a young woman in a thick, blue Water Tribe outfit, asked. She was sitting on one of the raised ledges on the edge of the bridge, swinging her legs slightly. Her eyes were fixed on the ground, and Li could have sworn she saw unshed tears glittering in the blue._

_"I guess we wait for them to wake up." A young man in a thick yellow robe rested his cheek on his hand, looking tired. His loose hair brushed his forehead, and he used his free hand to wipe some of it away. The moonlight glinted off blue tattoos on his forehead and the back of his hand._

_"If they ever do." Another woman in blue, sitting with her back to a ledge and her knees drawn up to her chest, muttered. Her hood was drawn over her head, but a few strands of brown hair showed along the edge between her skin and the fur._

_"It's not your fault." The first woman in blue slid off the ledge to go over to her friend. "Liandao, Meiko's too strong. You couldn't have done anything."_

_"What do you know?" Liandao buried her face in her arms. "If I hadn't let myself get knocked out…if I had been stronger…maybe…I could have…" Muffled noises that were alarmingly similar to sobs began to come from the woman, and her friend patted her back soothingly. "Thanks Jia…" Liandao raised her head to smile thinly at her friend._

_"There's no point in moping." The comment came from a woman in a long dress-style coat with a slit up one side, who was leaning against the arm of a tall man in heavy green furs. She held up one gloved hand, bent backwards at the wrist. "I know my cousin and I know Ru, and I know they'll come back. Ru would go to the Land of the Dead and back again to keep Li safe, and Li would do the same for Ru. Even though Ru would kill her for endangering herself."_

_"Kai's right." The tattooed boy straightened. "We just have to wait for them to wake up. Liandao, it's not your fault. Trust me. Besides, Ming said your wounds were pretty serious. Right, Ming?"_

_"Exactly." A girl with light brown hair braided into an elaborate style nodded, going over to Liandao and Jia to put a hand on Liandao's shoulder. "I had to get several other Healers to help me with you. Hong got five Healers himself."_

_"They were pretty!" An imposingly tall man in a Dai Li outfit jumped up, a childish grin on his face. "One of them was kinda old, but the others were pretty girls! And I feel lots better now, so don't worry about me!"_

_"Trust me, Hong, I'm not worried _about_ you, I'm worried _because _of you." Kai joked. Several of the group members laughed a bit, including Hong. "And if you all are so worried, look at how Si and You are handling things! They haven't said a pessimistic word or shed a tear or anything since…y'know!" She pointed to the two, sitting a little ways away from everyone else. Si was a tall man with dark hair, wearing an open orange shirt and yellow pants despite the cold. You was in a yellow shirt, orange pants, and had an orange shawl draped over her shoulders. Her hair was black and spiky, tamed in an orange headband with black spirals carved into it. _

_Upon hearing his name, Si looked up. He stared at the group dispassionately. You, on the other hand, seemed to be staring at the sky. _

_"You…what're you doing?" The man Kai was leaning against asked calmly. She started, nearly falling off the bridge._

_"Wah! Woah! Woah, woah, woah! What's going on?" She started to turn her head wildly, attempting to look for some threat she couldn't locate. "Are we being attacked again? I thought they were done with that!"_

_"Have you even heard one word we've said?" Kai's companion sighed. Kai rubbed his arm comfortingly._

_"Well...no." You admitted. The man sighed in frustration. "Sorry Zhu."_

_Li looked to the two people who had yet to speak. One, a man with a sword slung across his back, was brooding at the edge of the group. The other, a woman with white-and-black hair, was watching the group silently. Yi and Mao, her mind whispered. It didn't surprise her that Yi was being silent, or rather broody—he seemed incapable of living without angst. But Mao's unwillingness to talk had to mean something was wrong, or at least more wrong than the obvious._

_Hold up. After the first…"visit," whatever this was, Li remembered a voice speaking. A woman's voice, saying something about how Li wouldn't have another of these visits. That was what she had said, wasn't it? So why was she here, visiting her friends? Had the spirit discovered a way to keep Li from speaking to her friends, as Li had spoken to Aizo? Or was this not the spirit's doing? But if it wasn't the spirit, how could she be here?_

_Her friends had lapsed into silence, and it didn't take a genius to figure out what was on their minds. Li had been fatally wounded, and for what they knew, she was asleep in the Spirit Oasis, and might never wake up. Ru and Huo were sitting at the edge of the waters, in spiritual trances, presumably doing something to help Li wake up. But their friends didn't know what was happening—all they knew was that Li, Ru, and Huo were gone, either temporarily or permanently, and they were lost. _

_Despite feeling as if everything was happening in a play or a story, and not in reality, Li began to clench her fists in anger. She wanted to tell them that everything was all right, that they were fine, that there was no need to worry. Team Avatar would make it through, like they'd made it through so much together!_

_But they weren't together anymore…_

_Li tried to speak, to talk to them like she had spoken to Aizo, but her mouth wouldn't open, her lips wouldn't move, her tongue was frozen and air wouldn't pass through her lungs. Her body seemed to seize up, and she got the sense that something was keeping her from doing anything. Through the fog in her head, making everything seem distant, Li felt her anger boiling over._

_Several torches had been set along the bridge, adding to the light of the moon. They began to blaze hotter, higher, but nobody in Team Avatar seemed to notice. Li tried to focus on them, make them brighter, but whatever effect she had been able to have on them was suddenly blocked._

_It was the spirit! It had to be! Li tried to force her limbs to move, to make her mouth work, but nothing would do as she wanted it to. Everything started to blur, and something dragged her into the sky, away from the grand city of the Northern Water Tribe._

_Li body felt heavy. Her eyes started to shut…_

_No…they were opening… _

* * *

"Ve~, Li's awake!" Italy grinned from the seat across from Li. She blinked slowly, and forced herself to sit up. "Did you have a good dream, Li?"

"Mmn…yeah…sure…" Li yawned, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth. She was still half-asleep, and a part of her insisted she was still in the night sky above the arctic ocean, flying over black water and gray ice. But that part was slowly fading away, and her mind began to focus on the here and now.

After the zoo trip two days ago, Romano had insisted on taking Li to Sicily. Italy had come along, while Spain returned home and Seborga stayed to watch after Vatican. Seborga was funny, in Li's opinion—he'd surprised Li the moment she walked into the house by sprawling out on the floor and covering himself in ketchup. Poor Italy had thought someone had murdered him, and when Seborga started laughing, Italy had been convinced Seborga was a zombie. It took several hours to straighten everything out, with Hungary and the Italies looking at Li like she was a madwoman for having found Seborga's prank funny.

They were on a boat now, leaving Sicily after Romano had shown Li several towns. It seemed…well, Li really wasn't that impressed. A lot of farms and dusty roads, with sand-colored houses that were all built like boxes. Admittedly, some of the landscape had been very pretty, and Li was fairly sure there was a volcano on the large island, but the people all seemed poor. Not that their attitudes would let that on—everyone Li had met, even the field workers and unemployed, seemed optimistic and cheerful. One of them, an older woman in slightly shabby clothing, had insisted on giving Li an orange, just because Li helped her pick up some of the fruit she was selling after a dog ran into her stand.

All right, so there had been some large cities that Li had seen from the plane. But Romano insisted the true Sicilian spirit could only be found in the countryside and the small towns there, so they hadn't visited any of the more "modern" (in Italy's words) areas.

The boat was heading to Greece, where Romano would leave Li and Italy. Li was scheduled to stay in Greece for two days ("scheduled"—Austria's words, not Li's), after which she was supposed to visit Turkey. Hungary was Turkey's neighbor, and had told Li not to trust him. However, she had also started muttering to herself and clutching the Frying Pan of Death, so Li wasn't sure if it was fueled by a personal dislike or if it was actually good advice.

"You're going to love Greece, Li!" Italy promised, a huge smile lighting up his face. "He has a bunch of old ruins and he shows them to people, and they're really impressive! _Fratello_ and me have some really interesting ruins too, but Greece's are mostly older than ours. There are some pretty interesting stories behind them, too! Like—"

"She doesn't wanna hear about Greece's old stuff, Veneciano!" Romano snapped at his brother. "He'll tell her all about them when she's there, anyways. If the bastard's even awake."

"Do you guys mind if I go up on deck?" Li asked quietly, folding her hands in her lap.

"Ve~, sure! It's really nice up on deck!" Italy jumped up from his seat, and leaned over slightly to speak better to Li. "There's always such nice weather on the Ionian! Don't you think, Li?"

"Er…Italy, could I just go alone?" Li shifted uncomfortably. "I…I kind of wanna be by myself for a bit." Italy's face fell, and Li hastened to explain so he would cheer up. "While I was sleeping, I…er, I had a bad dream, and I'd like to be myself for a bit so I can think about it. That's what I usually do when I have a nightmare or something bad happens."

"Oh…I understand." Italy sat back down, and Li stood nervously. "When you get back, let's play a game, okay?" His cheerfulness returned in a split second, and Li was left amused at his carefree attitude. Had she ever been like that? She probably had been, back when she was still a small child. It was nice to see that Italy had never had the need to grow out of that phase. His country must have been left at peace for a very long time, if he was still so cheerful.

The deck wasn't very crowded, which Li was thankful for. It was high afternoon, the time when the sun was at its hottest, and most of the passengers on the ferry were likely taking a nap in their rooms. That left Li to wander over to the railing, with only a couple on the opposite side of the ferry to disturb her aloneness. Judging by how they were leaning in towards each other, Li felt fairly sure they would be very distracted in a short time, leaving her to do as she pleased. And that was fine by her.

Leaning heavily against the railing, Li tried to roll on her feet to the rhythms of the boat like Liandao had taught her. Of course, Li had spent most of the time Liandao was trying to coach her on how to move with the waves eating something or just ignoring Liandao to anger the woman. It wasn't that she didn't like Liandao: they were great friends in reality. But their friendship was mostly expressed through fake arguments and insults, leading outsiders to believe they hated each other when in reality they were as thick as lava. Arguing over pointless matters, only to burst into laughter when their opponent raised an eyebrow: insults that conveyed appreciation and approval: it was easy to see where the common man might get the wrong idea from the two of them.

Thinking of Liandao dragged Li's mind back to her dream, her "visit," that had given her a disturbing look at her friends. She hadn't really considered how they would be taking her absence—if she'd thought of their reaction at all, she'd assumed they were laughing and joking about how Li had managed to cheat death, and trying to think up pranks to pull on their unconscious bodies. Seeing them so serious, so…_sad_, uncertain of whether they had lost a friend or not, shook Li to the core.

Because…was she really that important? In all their travels together, Team Avatar had definitely grown into a tight group, but Li had thought that was the result of danger forcing them together. She hadn't realized how closely they had wormed their ways into each other's hearts, even the ones that didn't get along that well.

If it had been Xing, or Mao, or Zhu, how would Li have reacted? She gripped the railing as she realized she would have taken it harder than expected.

Xing was her friend, a source of laughter and entertainment that the Team really couldn't do without. Besides being the Avatar's Airbending teacher, he was the unofficial comedian of the group, his silly comments and completely un-monk-like humor brightening their moods after a hard day, or a loss of some sort. Even when nobody else could manage a smile, Xing would say the right thing to lift their moods and convince them to keep on trying. At times, he even managed to sound wise—which was, by common agreement among Team Avatar, completely accidental and totally untrue.

Then, Mao. The proud, stubborn Earth Princess that never let herself accept defeat. She was convinced she could take on the entire Tóngyī ShÌjiè army by herself, and even though she had been proven wrong on multiple occasions, her confidence helped inspire the rest of the Team into trying to outdo themselves. At times, one might think her confidence bordered on suicidal foolishness, but she always managed to come out in something vaguely resembling one piece. While she'd yet to lose a limb, Xing had started a secret betting pool on when she would, adding more humor to the group. And when Mao herself had declared her own entrance into the betting pool…

Zhu. What was there to say about Zhu? He was dating Kai, Li's cousin, and that was what Li primarily saw him as. But what about his warrior side? What about the man who charged into battle at the head of a small group of fighters, bellowing his excitement and bloodlust, covered head-to-toe in stone armor? And what of the gentle caretaker who had tended his girlfriend when she was injured in a battle, refusing to leave her side until she awoke, feeding her by hand even when she could manage it herself, gently changing her bandages with his rough, calloused hands? Without Zhu, part of the spirit, the life, of Team Avatar would be forever lost.

And everyone else? You, Ming, Liandao, Yi, Hong, Si, Jia? What if she lost them? Each and every one of them added something the group needed, something that kept them bound together. You was the wild card, an erratic young woman who did as she pleased and protected her friends with a ferocity bordering on the animalistic. Ming, the sweet, gentle Healer, whose kind words and confidence in the goodness of her friends and other people kept them all from degenerating into monsters. Liandao, loud, sarcastic, but the undisputed "mother" of the group, with her charge Jia, the Northern Water Tribe Princess whose innocent front masked a devilish mind. Yi, Li's official "bodyguard," whose arrogance when faced with a dangerous situation compelled everyone to get things over with quickly so he couldn't ruin things. Hong, Huo's little brother, formerly in training to be a Dai Li, was taller than any man Li had ever met, but still managed to act like a small child. But when faced with battle, Hong transformed into a precise and deadly killer who showed no mercy to the enemies of him and his friends. Finally, Si.

Si…

Li shuddered in horror at the thought of Si, and turned her mind to things she didn't find deadly and threatening.

Huo. The Avatar, possibly the strongest being in existence. Li tried to turn her mind from him as well, but it wouldn't be dissuaded, and she began to mentally list all of his faults and strengths. He acted immature, silly, and yet always seemed to know when the occasion called for seriousness and force. Due to his upbringing in the Jasmine Dragon Tea Shop, he was the best tea-brewer Li knew, and it was hard to picture him without a mug or a flask of tea in his hand. His father was once a renown Earth Kingdom general, General Jian Renzhe, whose tall figure striding through the battlefield with his battlehammers in hand still struck fear in the hearts of bandits and revolutionaries. Then Huo and Hong's mother, Shide Furen, a Northern Water Tribe woman whose romance with their father had been both highly controversial and badly portrayed in several plays. Shide Furen was an imposing woman, but once you got on her good side she was…she was…

Li couldn't find the right words to describe Shide, other than "worthy of respect—or else."

So many friends. So many people that Li cared for, and who cared for her. How could she have thought they wouldn't miss her so much? What a fool she was, to think nobody cared for her when, in reality, she was just as important to her friends as they were to her. She didn't deserve such wonderful people in her life. Without thinking twice, she'd thrown her life away, believing it worthless.

Dear spirits, what a fool Li could be…

* * *

"Fratello, should we go check on Li?" Italy asked Romano, both of them still in the lower deck. "She's been gone for a while, and she seemed sort of sad when she left. Do you think she had a bad dream?"

"I don't know." Romano scowled. "Why don't you ask that potato bastard, Germany? I'm sure he knows more about it than me anyways."

"Ve~, great idea, fratello!" Italy smiled and pulled out his cell phone.

"I WAS JUST KIDDING, VENECIANO! DON'T YOU DARE TALK TO THAT POTATO BASTARD!" Romano roared. Their fellow passengers just rolled their eyes. Those strange two brothers were arguing again.

* * *

**Li: Karen still hasn't caught the Fair One.**

**Fair One: She will never catch me! Never, you hear me? NEVEEEER!**

**Me: *pounces, misses***

**Fair One: *runs off***

**Li: And, while Karen chases the Fair One in a futile attempt to glomp her, please send in reviews telling her what you liked, disliked, and think she can improve on. She can only get better with your help, people!...Plus, I get a cookie with each review, and otherwise she doesn't really feed me... *ducks, barely avoids chair* Fair One! Watch out!**

**Fair One: I have an insane person trying to glomp me. Pardon if I don't immediately think of your safety!**


	23. Horned

**Me: WE MADE IT!**

**Li: Multiple exclamation points are a sign of a diseased mind. Can I get out of here already?**

**[[It bears noting that "here" is a makeshift fort constructed from blankets, duct tape, and common household furniture]]**

**Me: But what if there are zombies?**

**Li: A simple blackout, doesn't even last two days...and you're paranoid about zombies.**

**Me: Well...yeah. Sorta.**

**Li: ...she doesn't own Hetalia. She doesn't own Avatar. SO WHY DOES SHE GET TO OWN ME?**

**Me: Careful, Li. Multiple exclamation points are a sign of a diseased mind.**

**Li: KILL ME NOW.**

* * *

The ferry pulled into the harbor just as the sun was beginning to set. Li and Italy grabbed their baggage and got off, while Romano yelled at them to be careful and not talk to "that potato bastard" if he showed up. Since Li had no idea who that was, and Italy seemed to be ignoring his brother, she'd given Romano a few words of reassurance, then ignored the rest of his speech.

"Greece said he'd pick us up at the ferry, right?" Li looked around the crowded area, trying to see if there was anyone who looked like a Nation. She wasn't sure what would tell her who he was—or she, there were female Nations too—but she did know most of the Nations stood out in a crowd.

"Just look for cats, ve~," Italy advised. Li gave him a confused look, but started to keep an eye on the ground for anything with four legs and a furry tail. There was a conspicuous lack of cats as her and Italy wandered around the docks…

Until they stumbled upon what looked like an army of cats, gathered about a man sleeping on a bench.

"Greece!" Italy cried happily, picking his way through the cats to stand next to the man. Hands by his sides, he leaned over to bring his mouth about an inch from the man's ear. "Hey, Greece! We're here! Wake up!" The man shifted in his sleep, a hand raising to wave in the vague direction of Italy's face. He managed to hit Italy's nose, and Italy sneezed on his cheek.

That woke him up a little, at least. His eyes opened slightly, and he raised his head a bit to get sight of Italy. "Mmn…Italy…you've arrived…" He muttered, blinking.

"Yup! To spend the night!" Italy grinned at Greece. "And tomorrow you're gonna show us some of the nearby ruins, right? Athens is a really neat place!" The last statement was directed to Li. "You're gonna love it, Li! Ooh, Greece, do you think we'll have time to visit the Spartan ruins too? That'd be sooo awesome if we could show Li Sparta! What do you think, will we have time?"

"Mmn…perhaps…" Greece's eyes slowly shut again. Italy straightened and picked up a cat, rubbing its head happily. Li stared at the sleeping Nation, then glanced at Italy, then looked back at Greece again. She waited for a few minutes before finally speaking.

"So…are we going to Greece's home, or are we staying here all night?" Li finally asked. Without speaking, Greece opened his eyes, got up, and began to walk through the mass of cats. One of them had managed to climb on his head, but he gave no indication he noticed it. Italy, acting like it was perfectly normal for Greece to walk around with a cat on his head (and for all Li knew, it was), followed him with a huge smile. That left Li to carry the luggage—a medium-sized bag Hungary had bought her that was more than adequate for carrying what few things she had decided to bring along, and three large bags Italy had brought.

Grumbling a bit about the laziness of some people, Li hefted the bags as best she could and attempted to follow the two Nations—but, as her luck would have it, they had disappeared by the time she had the bags balanced on her shoulders.

Li stared in the direction she had last seen them going, wondering if she could catch up with them. Why did the Nations always vanish at the worst times? Well, she wouldn't find them standing here. Readjusting one of Italy's bags, Li started after them.

As it turned out, they had pretty much completely vanished. Li glanced around, wondering if she should just stay in one spot and wait for them to realize they'd forgotten her. But then she recalled the sleepy expression on Greece's face, and Italy's ditzy behavior, and decided it was best to go looking for them. Perhaps she would find someone who spoke her language?

But the street was empty, and the sun was almost entirely set. Li could feel its heat, the warmth that gave her Firebending strength, and she could feel it fading with the light. In maybe ten minutes, it would be totally gone.

A honking sound caught Li's attention, and she turned to see a large vehicle approaching. There had been similar vehicles in Italy and Austria—Li thought they were called "buses." Hungary had explained that they drove along set routes, and that people could ride them for a small fee. Maybe the driver knew where Greece lived!

Li set down the bags and began to wave frantically. The bus slowed, and stopped a few feet from Li. Its doors swung open, and a friendly-looking man nodded to Li. He gestured for her to come inside, so she picked up her bags and stepped up the stairs into the bus.

She had some money Italy had given her earlier on the ferry so she could buy some snacks, and now she pulled out a few bills and offered them to the driver. He waved the money away with a laugh, and gestured for Li to sit wherever she liked. Grateful to the man, Li took a seat near the middle of the bus, setting the bags on the seat next to her so nobody would sit there. Oddly, the bus looked empty.

"Um, do you know where Greece lives?" Li called to the man, who turned around and shook his head. "Oh. Sorry. Well…he has a lot of cats?" The man nodded, and closed the bus doors. "Do you even know what I'm saying?"

That got no answer, and the bus began to move forward. The engine began to hum, and Li felt her eyelids start to grow heavy. Well, the nice driver would wake her up when they got to Greece's place—she could afford a rest. And she was starting to need one, as the sun set completely, the extra energy she might derive from it vanishing.

But she had to stay awake…

Something was wrong here, Li realized. Her heart began to thump loudly in her ears, and a cold sweat broke out over her body. She struggled to move, but all she could control was her eyes. Li flashed back to the dream of being trapped inside her limp and helpless body, which now slept under the waters of the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole. This was so similar—she was just as unable to do anything now as she had been then! If she could have, Li would have screamed.

"Παρακαλώ μην πανικοβληθείτε. Θα είναι μια χαρά." The driver spoke at last. Li couldn't understand him, but she was fairly sure that he was responsible for whatever was happening to her. Something hot and sour welled up in her stomach, directing itself at the man driving the bus, but she couldn't do a thing. Her brain started to fuzz with sleep, despite Li's efforts to keep it clear.

Everything went dark.

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

Vague noises began to filter through to Li's brain. She felt rested, refreshed, like she'd slept for more than a day. Something warm was beating on her side—the sun? Yes, it was the sun…

Wait a minute. Wasn't it supposed to be night?

Li shot straight up—and fell off a stone slab. "Ow!" She exclaimed, rubbing her bruised side. The memory of the bus came back to her, and she quickly looked around for the driver.

Instead, she found herself in the middle of a vast stone ruin. Large blocks had tumbled down about her, with green plants growing around and on them. Something had happened here, something to destroy whatever the ruins had been—but Li found herself not caring. Because she had seen the driver.

It was odd—she was only now noticing the horns on his head. Looking back, she realized they had been there all along, but for some reason it hadn't crossed her mind as being strange. Nothing had registered as being out of the ordinary. Which it should have, because Li had never before seen a person with horns. They rested in short, curly brown hair, two brownish-white stumps. Li recalled the goats from the Bioparco Zoo, and thought they seemed somewhat similar to those.

"Who are you?" Li challenged him, staring straight into his eyes. His eyes—were somewhat disconcerting. The pupils were sideways rectangles, and the brown of his irises covered what Li could see of his eyeballs.

The man gave no indication he had heard her, but stood up from the slab of ruined stone he'd been using as a seat. He wore blue pants and a blue jacket over a white shirt, very similar to what Li remembered seeing other bus drivers wear in Italy and Austria. Several patches adorned the jacket, written in a language Li couldn't read, but definitely different from the ones she'd seen in other parts of Europe. A small beard grew on his chin, mostly fuzz.

"I asked who you are!" Li got to her feet with care, trying not to injure herself on any unseen sharp edges. She was still in her rough blue pants and a white shirt (jeans and a t-shirt, Hungary had called them) from the day before, and her eyes caught sight of the bags sitting next to the driver.

"Είμαι Παν." The man replied, speaking in that odd language Li couldn't understand. Li blinked—she had no idea what he had just said. Her mouth opened to tell him, but he pointed at one stone slab and, quite clearly, said, "Look under that."

Then he vanished.

Li stared at the spot where he'd been for a full minute before abruptly sitting on the stone slab behind her. She had just had an encounter with a spirit. With a flaming _spirit_. And he'd told her to look under a block of stone?

It was a large block of stone, that was for sure. Li wondered if he'd mistaken her for an Earthbender, because there was _no_ way she could lift something that large by herself. She realized this after she tried to move the stone and nearly crushed her foot under it. Yes, it would take at least two to get this thing moved—maybe more.

"If Italy and Greece hadn't forgotten me…" Li muttered to herself. She knew it wasn't totally their fault—after all, she'd lost them—but it would have been nice if they'd realized what had happened before she got onto that bus. Now she was who-knew-where, waiting for someone to find her. Looking for someone by herself seemed like a bad idea to Li, who didn't know the area and couldn't tell if this place was dangerous or not. What if there was some weakness in the ground, or a forgotten blade lying hidden in the grass? Hungary had bought Li what she called "tennis shoes," which were thick and clunky and nothing at all like the sleek, light leather boots Li was used to wearing, but Li wasn't sure how sturdy they were, or if they could stand up to rough treatment like the metal-plated soles she was used to.

Wait. What was that? Li strained her ears, and was almost positive she heard someone calling, "Li!" She wasn't sure who it was, but…it definitely sounded like good news to her ears.

"Hey! Over here!" Li shouted, cupping her hands over her mouth to increase the volume of her voice. "I'm over here!"

"Li?" The voice called. "Li! Where are ya?"

"Where I am!" Li replied without thinking, then added, "I'm not really sure where!" There was a clatter of rocks to Li's left, she whirled to look in that direction. "Hey! I just heard you! You're to my left!"

"That doesn't help me any!" Whoever-it-was cried in frustration. Li winced—he had a point. "Oh, forget it…make some noise so I'll know where ya are!" A quick glance around told Li she didn't have many options for banging things to make noise, so she opted for yelling.

"Noise! I am making noise! La la la la I am making noise!" Li yelled, opening her mouth as far as it would go and taxing her lungs to get the loudest and clearest noise possible. "This is me making noise!" She heard more clattering, someone scrabbling, and a man with a mask on his face popped his head over a slab of rock.

"There ya are!" The man exclaimed, pulling himself over a large piece of stone. "Ye've had everyone worried sick, disappearing like that! Why the heck'd you come out here? I thought you'd never been to Greece's place before, but here you are in the Parthenon, nice and secluded, where nobody who's never been here before could even find."

"Er…ask the man with horns how I got here." Li blinked at the masked man. "Italy and Greece disappeared while I was getting the luggage together, then some guy in a bus pulled up and offered me a ride, I fell asleep, I woke up here. That's all I know."

"Man with horns?" The masked man's eyebrows furrowed. "Never thought to blame a horned man. You sure you've never been to Athens before?"

"If I'd been here before, I'd never have gotten lost in the first place, sir." Li pointed out as politely as she could. "And I thought I was in Kerkyra? Italy said that was the name of the port we were coming in at. Is that close to Athens?"

"Um. It's on the other freakin' side of the country." The masked man leaned forward, and managed to lose his balance entirely. With several distressing cracking noises and a very distinct "Oof!" he landed almost at Li's feet. "Owwww…"

"Oh spirits! Are you okay?" Li crouched down next to him, being wary of the ground. "Anything broken? Um…does this hurt?" She jabbed a finger into his side, and he yelped. "Sorry! So sorry!"

"Aagh…that bastard Greece…dragging me out here to help look for a crazy chick…" The masked man grumbled, pushing himself up into a sitting position. He rubbed a red mark on his forehead. "I suppose you don't recognize me from the meeting. We never actually spoke face to face. I'm Turkey, Greece's neighbor. Formerly the Ottoman Empire. Though from what I hear, you don't know much history."

"Er…no, I really don't." Li shook her head. "Are you okay? Seriously, I don't like how those cracks sounded." She raised her hand to brush Turkey's hair from the red mark on his forehead so she could get a better look at it, but he slapped her hand away. Slightly offended, Li settled back and looked at Turkey indignantly.

"Nations heal fast, kid." Turkey sighed, bracing himself on his left arm. "Oof—that was a hard fall, though. Come on, let's get out of here. Everyone's looking for ya, and I don't want Greece's cats swarming me because I took too long to get ya back safe."

"Sure." Li nodded, getting to her feet. Turkey scrambled up as well, his foot snagging his long coat and making him fall back to the ground. On the way, his head hit a large block of stone, and Li was reminded of what the horned man had said.

_Look under that._

"Hey, help me lift this stone, can you?" Li asked, going over to it and crouching down. "The horned man told me to look under it, but I'm not strong enough to manage it all by myself. But, I figure that with two people, we can get it with no problem."

"I just whacked my head against that thing, and you're asking me to help you lift it?" Turkey grumbled, rolling over to glare at Li. "Because some freaky horned guy who kidnapped you said to look under it?"

"Er…yeah, pretty much." Li smiled as apologetically as she could and shrugged. Turkey stared at her, and Li shifted uncomfortably. His mask hid most of his face, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.

"Sounds good to me." He grinned. Li helped him to his feet, both being wary of his coat, and they got to opposite sides of the stone.

"Ready? On three." Li slid her hands under the rock, grateful that it had an easy gripping area on this side. Across from her, Turkey was muttering curses under his breath about how "damn slippery" the rock was. "One…" They both tightened their grips. "Two…" Li braced herself for the lift. "Three!"

The rock came up easily, like it was made of seafoam instead of stone. "Woah!" Li cried at the unexpected lightness of it. "You Nations really are stronger than humans! It feels like it weighs nothing!"

"Huh?" Turkey looked around the stone at her. "Hold up. That's all you, kid. I'm barely doing anything."

"Um…but…I'm not doing much either…" Li blinked. The stone had felt like a tank when she tried to lift it earlier! What was this? "Can you see anything under it?"

"Hm?" Turkey lifted the stone so that him and Li were standing with their arms above their heads. "Whaddya know. Take a look." Li peered down at the ground, and frowned.

"Pipes?" She wondered aloud. "We lifted this stone…for a set of pipes?"

"Hey, they're kinda cool." Turkey admonished her, kneeling. Li lost her grip on the stone, but Turkey managed to hold it up with one hand while he grabbed the pipes. Tossing the rock off to the side, he stood up and offered the pipes to Li. When she gave him a blank look, he explained, "The man with horns kidnapped you. I figure he wanted you to have these."

"Aren't they Greece's, though?" Li protested. "I mean, this is his land, right? Doesn't anything we find here rightfully belong to him?"

"Nah, not really," Turkey yawned, covering his mouth with his free hand. "Just take the frickin' pipes already. I don't feel like standing around arguing, and we need to get back to the others before they start to think I got lost too. Like I'd get lost…I used to rule this place…"

"Really?" Li took the pipes from Turkey's outstretched hand, curious about what his statement meant. She glanced down at the pipes, frowning at how beat-up and dirty they were. Really, she had been kidnapped by a horned man, driven across Greece's home, and dumped in some ruined structure…to retrieve a set of ordinary reed pipes?

"Come on, help me grab some of these bags." Turkey instructed, going over the luggage. Li waited a moment to respond to him, busy squinting at an odd mark on one of the reeds of the pipe. Was that…huh. It looked extremely similar to some of the writing Li had seen walking around in the harbor with Italy, back in Kerkyra. Having absolutely no idea what it meant, Li went over to her bag and slipped the pipe in, fighting with the zipper. At least the zipper on her pants didn't fight her that much.

"Why was the stone so light when you helped me lift it, but not before?" Li asked Turkey as he guided her over a mound of debris. "I mean, I tried it before you came along, and it was way too heavy for me to try on my own, but with you there it went pretty fast. Did you do something to it? Or were you doing more work than you were letting on?"

"Kid, I honestly don't think I could lift something that big without help." Turkey admitted. "But I didn't do anything to it, and I'm not stronger than I'm letting on—that was weird to me too."

"I should ask Greece about it when we get out of here." Li suggested, clambering over a small scattering of smashed stones. "Do you think he'll know?"

"That bastard?" Turkey snorted. "Don't bet on it. He's a lazy good-for-nothing that just sleeps and dreams of being a cat. I wouldn't expect him to know anything if his life depended on it."

"Well, it is his home." Li pointed out.

"Whatever." Turkey waved his hand. "Do what you want."

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Turkey! You found Li!" Italy exclaimed as the two appeared from around a corner. "We were all so worried about you, Li! What happened? Why are you in Athens?"

"Sorry for making you worry, Italy." Li smiled at the Nation. "I'll explain once I've had some food. Think we can go to Greece's house and eat?"

"That…would be good." Greece agreed softly from next to Italy. He looked like he was going to fall asleep any moment, and fall onto the mass of cats gathered at his feet. They would probably make a very comfortable bed, actually…

"Oi! What about me?" Turkey demanded, stomping over to Greece. "I'm the one that found her! What, don't I get a thank you?"

"No…" Greece glared up at Turkey. The two began to shoot metaphorical daggers at each other with their eyes, as Li and Italy watched in confusion and obliviousness, respectively. Italy pulled a tomato out from someplace Li couldn't see, and began to eat it, making happy noises. Li noticed the cats were acting like nothing was happening at all, which confused her quite a bit. Cats were able to sense the mood of a situation very well, and this seemed a bit tense. Did their reaction mean Greece and Turkey did this all the time?

"Oh!" Li remembered, going for her bag. "Greece, we found something I wanted to ask you about." She pulled the pipes from her bag, and stuck her arm between Turkey and Greece, hoping to end the staring match. "They were under a slab of fallen stone. When I tried lifting the stone by myself, it was too heavy to move, but when Turkey helped me it was suddenly light enough for him to hold up with one hand. Do you know anything about it?"

"Hm?" Greece blinked slowly, then turned his head to look Li in the eyes. His gaze was steady, and a bit dull, but something about it unnerved Li. It was like the sleepy look in his eyes was just a front for a rapidly thinking mind, one Greece hid so his opponents would underestimate him. Or maybe he was just lazy. Either way, Li felt herself needing to blink.

"Ooh, they look pretty!" Italy exclaimed. He took the pipes from Li and rubbed them with one hand. "They look like the kind Grandpa Rome used to have! Greece, don't you agree?"

"Yes…they are very…similar…" Greece looked away from Li, and the Firebender had to keep herself from sighing in relief. "Perhaps…Li should…tell us what happened…after we've eaten?"

"That's a great idea, ve~!" Italy grabbed Li and Greece's arms, smiling like a festival had just come early. "Turkey, you should join us! We can call the other searchers back to Greece's house, and Li can tell us why she disappeared two days ago!"

"Huh?" Li yelped, pulling away from Italy. "Two days ago? I've been gone for _two whole days?"_

"Well, two nights and a day." Italy admitted. "But I'm sure something exciting happened to you! Now come on! I can make some pasta!"

"Sounds good to me!" Turkey grinned. "Hey Greece! Pasta?"

"Mm…all right…" Greece murmured.

"Actually Italy, I was looking forward to trying some of Greece's food." Li confessed. Greece shrugged. Either that meant he would cook something for Li, or his shoulders were a bit stiff and he had to work out some tension. Italy didn't seem to mind.

"Let's go, ve~!" The happy Nation proclaimed, proceeding to drag Li and Greece down the streets of Athens with Turkey following and laughing his head off at how stupid Greece looked just then.

* * *

**Me: Well, thanks to the blackout, I'm behind on my writing. To Word!**

**Li: Please send reviews so I can get a cookie...please...**


	24. Drunk

**Me: Well, here's another chapter. Mostly filler, except for the end, where you'll see something that vaguely resembles a plot. At least, it vaguely resembled one when I reread it at one in the morning.**

**Li: You should sleep more.**

**Me: I'll sleep when I'm dead. *chugs caffeine-filled beverage* Now that's out of the way, I have two issues to address.**

**Li: For the love of...**

**Me: Shush, dear. Now, first off, a lovely, wonderful friend of mind has made some character art for my original characters from the Avatar universe. They're not all done, but I've been trying to figure out where I should post them. I'm thinking DeviantArt, but I'm not sure. Could I get some suggestions? Because once they're up there, I'd like to request some fanart from you guys-Sabaku no Koori has offered to make a music video, but my own drawing skills-in my opinion-suck, so I'm wondering if you guys would like to try.**

**Li: Who would want to do something for you?**

**Me: Oh, shush, you. Secondly...well...the Fair One and I have an ongoing debate, and I would like to know what you guys think. So, without me telling you anything else other than that it is purely created by me (with the Fair One's occasional input), how many of you guys would like to see a webcomic of a thing I'm making? It's a work in progress, of course, and there's no telling when I will finish it, but I'd like to know who'd wanna read it. There's gonna be a poll on my profile. Put your answer there.**

**Li: Oh, yeah, I've read that comic thingy. I think it sucks.**

**Me: You think everything I do sucks.**

**Li: So?**

**Me: So...oh, forget it. Just, can people post on the poll, please? Li's just prejudiced against me for all the crap I put her through.**

**Li: This is true. I still think the comic's crap and that you shouldn't make a webcomic of it.**

**Me: You're the Voice of Doubt in my head, aren't you? The one that keeps telling me it's stupid and nobody will like it?**

**Li: Duh. Oh, and I'm the Voice of Disclaimer as well, so, Karen doesn't own Hetalia or Avatar.**

* * *

"So, you were abducted by a horned man…" Austria took a sip of his coffee and set the mug on the table, staring into the liquid. "Are you sure you saw correctly?" His tone made it plain he didn't believe her, which Li took offense at. It wasn't like she'd made this up!

"Well, pretty sure." Li sighed, pushing her food around on its plate. Despite having apparently been missing for two nights and a day, she didn't feel hungry at all. Maybe she'd been well-fed? In any case, the kokoretsi didn't look at all appealing—actually she would have sworn it looked like some sort animal's guts. She would really have to ask Greece later… "I mean, he was right in front of me for most of it."

"Greece, do you know what it was?" Italy asked worriedly. Greece, leaning back in his chair and probably asleep, gave no answer. "Ve~…I'm worried…what did Li see?"

"We'll have to investigate." Germany suggested, drinking some beverage that smelled strongly of alcohol. Him and Austria, along with Turkey, Romano, Hungary, Spain, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, and several other countries Li vaguely remembered as being England and France, though she couldn't quite remember who was who, had come to help look for Li. As for the two Nations LI couldn't identify, well…both were blond and had light-colored eyes, but beyond that Li was lost. Was the one with the thick eyebrows France…?

"Hey, Turkey, are you psychic?" Little Latvia asked the masked nation. Upon reaching Greece's, Turkey had put on a large, red, cylindrical hat with a gold-colored tassel. Li was having a hard time resisting the urge to flick at the tassel with a finger. Several cats had climbed onto the table and Turkey's shoulders, and were already trying to reach it. None had succeeded so far.

"Huh?" Turkey paused from eating his "gyro," some sort of flat bread wrapped around vegetables and meat, to give Latvia a frowning look. "Why the heck'd ya think that?"

"Well, Italy said you showed up even before Li went missing." Latvia explained. "I was wondering if maybe you had a premonition or something of it and came over early."

"Uhh…yeah, of course I did!" Turkey gave a raucous laugh, banging his fist on the table. "It's not like I came to hang out with Greece because I thought Japan may have stopped by! He's being flown to my place later in the week to give him time to recover from the whole thing, anyways. By the way, I built a new shopping mall on the border for ya next time you feel like shopping in Turkey, Greece."

"Mmm…don't expect me…to use it…ever…" Greece mumbled.

"Of course I don't! It's just there so ya won't use it!" Turkey took a huge bite of his gyro and chewed vigorously, managing to get a bit of sauce on his mask. Li handed him a napkin wordlessly and pointed to the spot, and he wiped it out. With a huge swallow, the older man gasped, "Thanks kid! Don't know what I'd'a done without ya! Gah, Greece has some weird sauces. And why's it white? Shouldn't a good sauce be red or brown or something?"

"Ohonhonhon…" France/England chuckled to himself. "Is anyone else thinking of what I'm thinking of?" He gave a suggestive wink to Li, whose eyebrows knit for a moment in confusion before she realized what he meant. Her face immediately turned bright red, and unnoticed to the Nations, the lights got a little brighter. Most of the light in Greece's kitchen, where they were scattered about, leaning against kitchens or sitting at counters, was coming from some large windows, and only one overhead bulb was currently lit.

"You bloody frog! Now we're _all_ thinking it!" The other one—the one with huge eyebrows—roared, lunging at France/England. Eyebrows attempted to strangle France/England, but the blue-eyed Nation managed to dodge the attack and dart into the hallway.

"An excellent attempt, Angleterre!" France/England crowed, a devilish grin on his face as he paused in the doorway. "But as always, France prevails!" Oh, so this was France. Okay. Then Eyebrows was England?

"GET BACK HERE, YOU BLOODY FROG!" England shouted, charging at France. France turned tail and fled, laughing insultingly at England. They disappeared down the hallway, England yelling what was probably obscenities at France, who just infuriated England further by laughing.

Li looked around at the remaining nations. "Um…do they do that a lot?" She ventured, gesturing towards the door England and France had disappeared through.

"All the time." Lithuania sighed. "You get used to it after a while. Aren't you hungry? You've barely touched your food."

"Er…no, not really." Li admitted, pushing her plate away from herself slightly. "But…I have been wondering," she turned to Italy, "why you didn't notice I was gone before the horned man showed up in the bus? I mean, it was a good five minutes before he showed up. You had plenty of time."

"Ve~? But Li, you just vanished!" Italy protested. "We were waiting for you to pick everything up, and we looked away for a minute because a kitty started yowling, and when we looked back you were gone! It was really scary! Then Turkey showed up and Greece accused him of doing it, and I started screaming about you being kidnapped, and we didn't get much done until last night, when Germany called to see how I was doing and I told him you'd disappeared."

"You…you waited a whole day to tell anyone I'd disappeared?" Li's eyes widened. "Remind me never to get hurt around you!"

"You weren't allies with him during a war." Austria sipped at his coffee. "He is the worst sort of ally. He cannot fight, eats to excess, is constantly flirting with women…and his brother is not much better." Romano opened his mouth to protest, face red, but Spain began to rub a tomato against his cheek. Apparently Spain was preferable to Austria for yelling at, because Romano set in on him with a vengeance.

"Hey, where's America?" Li asked as Romano called Spain a "tomato bastard." "I mean, he seemed like the sort to help look for someone. Why didn't he come running the moment it got out?"

"Nobody's heard from America since he left for Japan's place the day of the earthquake." Hungary took a delicate bite of her meatballs and swallowed quickly. "Prussia vanished about a day after that. They're probably helping Japan with cleanup after the earthquake. Though honestly, I'm a bit surprised Prussia's doing actual work."

"Mein bruder is not as lazy as you think, Hungary." Germany admonished, his mug almost empty. The fumes from his drink, as well as Turkey's and France's (currently unattended on the counter), were starting to reach Li. "He is somewhat childish at times, but he is not useless. Or have you forgotten his military?"

Wow, those alcohol fumes were starting to build. Li's vision distorted a little, barely enough for her to notice. She didn't give it much heed, although that may have been her judgment starting to deteriorate. The kokoretsi on her plate was starting to look a bit more appetizing, too…she really should try some, if just to be polite to her host. He'd made it for her, after all…it would be impolite not to eat it…

"Hey, Li!" Turkey's voice brought Li back to the vague area of the present. "Ya look kinda under-the-weather! Here, have some of my raki, it'll cheer ya up!" Something in Li's mind warned her that to accept was a very, very bad idea…but what was the harm, really? She could stand a swallow or eight…right?

"S-sure…" Li nodded, reaching a hand out for the drink. Turkey handed her a bottle he had been holding, and Li put it to her lips. She paused as she tilted it up, wondering why some part of her seemed to think this was a bad idea, but ignored it and took a long drink.

And everything blurred until there was nothing…

_Told you so…_that little voice in her head muttered. It could be such a smart-aleck sometimes. Especially when it was right.

* * *

Li toppled off her seat at the counter, to the great surprise of Turkey. The bottle, which had been clutched loosely in her hand, fell to the floor with a crash. Shards of glass spread across the floor, and the raki began to puddle next to Li's head.

"Wha…wha…" Turkey gaped, then looked at his cup. "Was it…?" His eyebrows knit together momentarily, and then his eyes widened in realization. "Greece! You poisoned my raki!"

"Did…not…" Greece mumbled, peering at Li over the counter. Everyone else seemed to have frozen, and was staring at Li in shock. Italy and Romano looked like they had just witnessed a murder, and Latvia and Estonia's mouths were so wide they were in danger of having something fly into them.

"SOMEONE POISONED LI!" Italy screamed. Romano began to yell at Spain about Li being poisoned, while Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania began to tremble and cry about Li being dead. Hungary and Austria dove to kneel next to Li, Austria checking her pulse and Hungary elevating her head. Turkey began to yell at Greece about poisoning his raki, despite Greece's sleepy protests of innocence. Germany did his best to calm Italy down, but he was kept giving the puddle of raki paranoid glances. What if it was a poison that could kill on contact? But, hadn't Turkey been drinking from it? Or was that another bottle? Could it have really been Greece? Did he have the antidote…?

They all stopped dead when Li let out a drunken snore and muttered something about "badgerfrogs."

"Um…I think she's just passed out…drunk." Hungary blinked, and leaned down to sniff at Li's breath. "Yikes! She is drunk! Who gave her all that alcohol?"

"She's only had my raki…" Turkey muttered indignantly. "Ah well. Guess Turkish alcohol would be too much for anyone. Can't expect y'all to take it, can I?"

"I'll…take it…and more…" Greece protested, sitting up. "Give me some…I'll…beat you…"

"Huh? A drinking contest?" Turkey produced several more bottles from under his coat. "You're on!"

"Li got drunk off just one drink of raki?" Spain peered down at the girl. "Huh. Guess she doesn't have much alcohol tolerance."

"She was looking a bit woozy before she had it, too…don't tell me she was getting affected by the fumes from everyone's drinks!" Romano exclaimed, slapping Spain on the head. "Goddamnit Spain! Why didn't you say anything? You're always talking about what a cool boss you are, take some responsibility!"

"Huh? It's my fault?" Spain's eyes widened, and he seized Romano in a bear-hug. "I'm so sorry, Romano! I'll be a much cooler boss from now on, I promise!"

"Wha—let go!" Romano head-butted Spain. "Stupid jerk!"

* * *

The Fire Nation paused at the door, debating if this was necessary. He stood before a large house in the Spirit World's realm of Wanban, where the personifications of the Nations of his world had resided since the end of the War. Since his War had ended…his March of Civilization…

No! He couldn't call it that! Not now, not when he knew better, not when he finally understood just how wrong he had been. How could he have believed the lies of Sozin, of Azulon, of Ozai? What appeal had their twisted logic shown, to persuade him to become a monster?

But now was not the time to think of such things. Now he had a task to complete, and he would be damned if he failed to persuade her. His first love.

His hand came up to knock on the door without him realizing he had given it permission. The wood gave dull thuds, and the Fire Nation winced at the slight charred smell that still came from it. Years had passed, but her house still had that stench…

A tall, lanky young man opened the door, eyeing the Fire Nation with distaste. While the Fire Nation was tall, this man towered a good six inches over him, a veritable giant. "Mom figured you'd be here." He grumbled, opening the door wider. His eyes glared at the Fire Nation, unspoken threats clear. "Come in. She said I couldn't turn you away."

"Thank you, Si Wong." The Fire Nation entered with a courteous bow, but only received a grunt. Si Wong slammed the door behind him, and followed the Fire Nation as the elder found his way to the formal parlor with ease. One wall was open, letting visitors see into the beautiful garden beyond. A single woman sat in the room, looking completely at ease on a low green divan. Upon the entrance of the Fire Nation and Si Wong, she sat up and patted the seat next to her invitingly. Taking the hint, the Fire Nation went to sit beside her.

"I thought you would come." She murmured, her green eyes kind and forgiving. "Oh, Zhuang…"

"Please." The Fire Nation interrupted her. "I would prefer it if you didn't call me that anymore." Her eyes widened a fraction in hurt, but quickly closed. She took a deep breath, and leaned forward.

"I have forgiven you for what you did to me and my children." She murmured into the Fire Nation's ear. "And I have forgiven you for what you did to me. Your actions, at least, show your true feelings on the matter. They tell me you are horrified by what you have done, and that you would never again dream of doing such things. So please, let's be informal, just this one time?"

"This one time will become another…" The Fire Nation's eyes glazed over in memory. "And another, and another…and what if I am deceived again by my Fire Lord? What will happen to you then, Earth Kingdom? Will I hurt you again, like I did for a hundred years in the War? Would you forgive me for that as well?"

"I will fight you." The Earth Kingdom replied simply. "But until then, we are separate from our leaders. So you must call me Toyo, and I will call you Zhuang, and we will pretend that we are humans speaking on human matters for a little while." Her green eyes, the same shade as grass after a rain, pleaded with the Fire Nation, and he could only give in.

"Very well. Toyo." Zhuang ceded grudgingly. "I have come to ask you if you will do something for me. You, and your children, Ba Sing Se, Omashu, Si Wong Desert, Gaoling—" One of Toyo's fingers came to rest on his lips, and she raised an eyebrow at him. "Fine. You, Mingmei, Cadeo, Taro, Genji, Lan, Chen, all your children. Will you…" He paused.

"Will we what?" She asked him, voice devoid of emotion. The Earth Kingdom—no, Toyo—had always known him so well. He wouldn't put it past her to know simply from his hesitation to ask exactly what he wanted. But he had to say it, so he drew a deep breath and spoke.

"Will you return to the human world with me?"

The effect his words had was completely unexpected. Toyo threw her head back and laughed, then stood and went to the small porch that extended into the garden. "Children!" She called. "Come here! I have something to tell you!" And they must have been hiding just out of sight, because suddenly five teenagers were standing in the garden. They had arranged themselves in a line, oldest to youngest, and Si Wong—who had previously been hovering by the door to the parlor, clearly unwilling to leave his mother alone with the man who had brought so much pain to her—went to stand between the oldest and second-oldest.

The Fire Nation stared at them. First in line was Ba Sing Se, a girl who appeared to be in her late teen years, with a slender form and long, graceful hands. Her black hair was pulled up into a wooden headdress, and an elegant green dress with little embroidery or accent covered her from neck to ankles. She gave a superior look to the Fire Nation, who couldn't resist a grin. Despite her claims of being the "Impenetrable City," he'd had her eventually…think of that what you will. She went by the human name of Mingmei, although she rarely allowed anyone but her mother and her second-youngest sibling to call her that.

Si Wong Desert glared openly at the Fire Nation, his dislike clear. He was populated by hard, strong tribes, people who survived terrible sandstorms and scorching heat. His dirty, sand-colored clothing was evidence of the hardships he and his people faced every day, as was his weather-worn face and tanned, calloused hands. Despite his ruffian appearance, he possessed an intellect no other Nation could dream of, a product of being the location of Wan Shi Tong's Library. The two were still on good terms, and now that the Library was back in the Spirit World, Si Wong Desert visited almost daily with new additions for Wan Shi Tong. His family members were the only ones allowed to call him by his human name, Taro.

The Great Divide, or Chen, gave a cocky grin to the Fire Nation. He was just as scruffy as his brother, but lacked that sharp look in his eyes that belied Si Wong Desert's incredible mind. Instead, he appeared to be like any other boy in his late teens, a kind smile and work-hardened hands. Few actually lived in him nowadays, but he once boasted a population of cliff-dwellers, who had carved cities into the rock faces of his home. Now that they were gone, victims of a harsh land turned harsher and the Canyon-Dwellers that plagued his home, it was widely believed he might fade out of existence some day. For his mother's sake, the Fire Nation hoped that didn't happen for a long time.

Omashu stood next in line, though a part of the Fire Nation's mind kept insisting he was called New Ozai. Appearing to be in his late teens like his older siblings, with a light green jacket and pants and a similarly-colored turban, he was tearing small pieces off a cabbage and eating them slowly while giving the Fire Nation an intense look. The "odd child" of the Earth Kingdom's brood, he nevertheless had an air of charm to him that persuaded many women to give him the time of day—and more. That, as the Fire Nation remembered, was how the Foggy Swamp Water Tribe came to be. Southern Water Tribe still denied anything had happened, but…well. Being more open than his elder brothers, Omashu allowed anyone who pleased to call him by his human name, Cadeo.

Next to Omashu stood a boy who looked almost exactly like him, only he was dressed in slightly darker colors and his outfit was much more elaborate than his brother's—and he appeared to be in his early teenaged years, instead of the late, due to him being younger than his other siblings. Both had the Earth Kingdom's green eyes—a trait passed to all of her children, save one—and light brown hair, doubtlessly from their father. Gaoling, called Genji by humans who didn't know of his true nature, gave the Fire Nation a curt nod, but held himself aloof. Due to his isolation amongst mountains, he had never seen much need to become involved in the War, and the Fire Nation had never bothered to turn his attention to him when there were much more pressing matters elsewhere. Perhaps it was a good thing, because of all the Earth Kingdom's children, Gaoling seemed to have never truly hated him, like his brothers and sisters. Most of them had since accepted the Fire Nation's apologies, but some—namely, Si Wong Desert and Ba Sing Se—could not bring themselves to forgive the Fire Nation yet.

Finally was Kyoshi Island, a girl in her preteens, wearing a Kyoshi Islander's blue jacket and pants. She had gone mostly untouched in the War also, like Gaoling, save for an incident in the late winter of 99 ASC. Kyoshi Island was an enthusiastic and outspoken girl, sometimes annoying others with her inability to keep her opinions to herself. Her hair was dark brown, and cut to frame her face, while she too shared her mother's brilliant green eyes. The island was known as Lan, and she was young enough to have forgiven the Fire Nation for his actions almost immediately after the War's ending.

It occurred to the Fire Nation that it was slightly ironic, that the Earth Kingdom's three youngest children were the only ones who truly liked him, out of their whole family. But then, Kyoshi Island and Gaoling were young, and from the south, where they'd had little contact with the sister the Fire Nation had killed. And their youngest sibling had only been born after Taku's death, born to replace the lovely girl known to humans as Lian.

"Children." The Earth Kingdom beamed, clapping her hands together and startling the Fire Nation from his thoughts on her children. "We're going home!"

* * *

**Li: Read, review, tell her how to improve. Like being nicer to me? *hopeful***

**Me: Neeeeeeveeeeeeeer. ^_^**

**Li: Haaaate.**


	25. Hangover

**Li: Karen doesn't own Hetalia or Avatar.**

**Me: And I'm posting this while in a hurry, so sorry!**

* * *

Li's eyes opened a fraction before she closed them as quickly as possible. Since when did light hurt so badly? And why did her head ache like that, why did she feel like throwing up, why couldn't she remember much after Turkey handed her that bottle of raki…?

Oh. Raki. Alcohol. Li didn't handle alcohol very well. That might explain it.

There were a few faint sounds about her, but Li only really cared about the pain they caused. She tried to move her hands to cover her ears, but that hurt too. Why did whoever that was have to make so much noise? Didn't they know she was ill here? Clearly they had little concern for her health…

Someone started yelling, and Li whimpered. Her body instinctively curled into a ball, in a futile attempt to shut out the external world. Why did people have to be so loud? Couldn't they see she was in pain here? That she was seriously starting to need to—

Oh flame…

The realization that she was going to throw up forced Li to open her eyes. She was lying on a nice bed in an unfamiliar room, probably one of Greece's guest rooms. There were two doors in the room: one was partially open, showing a small private bathroom beyond. Forcing her body to work, and wincing at the light streaming in through the window, Li staggered into the bathroom and collapsed on the toilet rim. Her stomach immediately emptied itself.

"Least I didn't eat that animal gut thing…" Li muttered to herself before her stomach heaved again.

She wasn't sure how long she spent throwing up, head splitting from the massive hangover she always seemed to get whenever she drank alcohol. It wasn't like she couldn't drink—she just had to water down anything alcoholic with massive amounts of water, or fruit juice, and even then her friends would joke about being wary of sudden fires. Her brother drank like a fish, but he never seemed to suffer ill effects, that night or the next morning. Li thought this totally unfair, but she never voiced her complaints. Why bother, when her brother would just laugh and say her inability to hold her drink was the spirits' way of answering an elder brother's prayers?

Someone had entered her room while she was throwing up, and as Li tried to spit whatever was left of her vomit into the toilet, they knocked on the open bathroom door. "You should rinse your mouth out with water." Hungary suggested, walking to the sink. She took a cup from the counter and filled it with tap water, then handed it to Li. "Swish it around in your mouth a bit, then spit. How are you feeling?"

"Eurgh." Li gagged, downing half of the water in the cup. She swished it around with her tongue like Hungary had suggested, then leaned over as another fit of nausea manifested. Nothing solid came out, just clear liquid that burned a bit on the going. The rest of the water went down Li's throat, soothing her burning esophagus and giving her stomach something other than its own acid to work with.

"Hungry?" Hungary asked sympathetically. Li nodded, panting, trying to keep herself from throwing up again. There were no lights on, but flame, what was coming in through the windows was practically killing her. Hungary's voice was a bit less painful, but not by much. "I'll get you something for the headache, too. If your stomach settles before I get back, try to get back into bed. You're going to want some rest."

"Nngh…" Li groaned, clutching the rim of the toilet as a fresh wave of nausea emptied her stomach again. Her abdomen was starting to hurt, and she was starting to think she might even welcome some of that animal-guts dish if she could just get some. Who knew throwing up left one so hungry?

Someone started running around on the floor beneath Li's room, then climbed some stairs. Li winced at the pounding, a different tempo than the pounding of her head that only made things hurt worse. Whoever it was clearly didn't realize she was in pain, because the next thing she knew the door to her guest room flew open and Greece and Turkey burst in, almost sticking in the doorway.

"Hey! Kid!" Turkey yelled. "You okay?"

Li's response was a strangled cry of pain, followed by more heaving of her stomach and some very pitiful whimpering. Greece glared at Turkey, and began to mutter something about Turkey's insensitivity, but both were interrupted by a rather painful frying pan to the head.

"Out!" Hungary commanded as both nations rubbed sore heads. "Li needs some quiet! She was passed out for a whole day and night, and I think you can stand to give her some space to recover."

"Aww, I was just worried…" Turkey protested. "You left a bump…don't forget who used to beat you up!" His words were answered with another frying pan strike, and Greece followed his enemy's hasty retreat. Hungary put the frying pan away who-knew-where, then went over to kneel beside Li."

"I have some food and something for the headache." She told Li gently. "The food's as bland as I could get, so do you think you can eat? If not, I'll leave it here until you're feeling better. Oh, and I brought some tea bags and hot water. You like tea, right?"

"Yeah…" Li tried to smile at Hungary, but she felt too weak to make her facial muscles respond properly. "C-can you make it for me while I try eating something? And what kind of herbs did you have for my head?"

"Oh, they're not herbs—they're pills." Hungary pulled a small bottle out of her pocket, opened it, and took out three tablets. "Here. Swallow these. They seem to work pretty well for the German brothers when they drink too much, which is about twice a week in Prussia's case. Feel up to a little bread?"

"Mm…" Li took the pills from Hungary and put them in her mouth. With a little difficulty, she swallowed, then focused on trying to keep from regurgitating them. Her headache didn't change at all after five minutes, and she opened her eyes to see Hungary looking at her intently. "They're not working." Li informed her.

"Well, of course not. It'll take a little while for them to start working." Hungary sounded like it was obvious, but Li didn't think that was fair. Remedies in the Fire Nation—in all of her world, actually—tended to take effect fairly quickly, for reasons unknown to Li. Maybe it was because they were actual plants, not little colored tablets that tasted horrible and were most certainly not made of natural ingredients. Urgh, no, don't throw up again…

"Can…can I try some of that bread?" Li whispered, putting her hands on both sides of her head. Her stomach rumbled loudly, as if to punctuate the request, and Hungary pulled some bread wrapped in some sort of weird, soft paper from her pocket.

"Here." She unwrapped it carefully, and handed the bread to Li. It was a small loaf, with a lightly browned crust that felt a bit rough to Li's fingers. Again, her stomach rumbled, and without hesitation she took a bite.

It was wheat bread, somewhat coarse, with a few nuts mixed in. Normally, Li would have thought it peasant's fare, but right now she ate it like it was a delicacy from the Fire Nation's finest cooks. Hungary watched her wolf down the food, a small smile on her face. Once it was gone, she helped Li over to the bed and offered her a tray with a small salad containing some unseasoned meat—chicken, if Li recalled correctly from the taste. She ate it as quickly as she could, trying to ignore the threatening lurches her stomach gave.

"Thanks." Li whispered as soon as she was done. She realized her headache had dulled to bearable levels, and put a hand over her mouth as a wave of nausea hit. It subsided, and she eased herself back onto the bed.

"I think you should rest for today." Hungary advised her. "The Italies' birthday is tomorrow, and they've invited you to the party. See if you can get better before then."

"What time is it?" Li asked, glancing at the window. The light still hurt her eyes, and she winced. "Ow."

"It's mid-morning." Hungary replied. "Try to sleep. If you're feeling better later, Turkey wants to show you around."

"Why would he want to show me around Greece's home?" Li frowned, covering her eyes with a pillow.

"Well…technically, you were supposed to be visiting him today, so he insisted we bring you to Ankara last night, after everyone else had left Greece's." Hungary explained. "Really, just sleep, honey. Don't worry about it. We all know how hangovers can be. I'll check in on you later. Until then, try to keep that food down and don't move around too much." The kind nation left the room, shutting the door behind her as quietly as possible.

Li stared up at the ceiling. It was white and lumpy, but looked gray in the shadowy areas. A lamp hung in the very middle, a round glass ball with something inside that would presumably be ignited to give off light. The room didn't have much furniture—the bed, a bedside table, a dresser, a mirror on the wall, and that was it. Simple white sheets and pillows adorned the bed.

Well, she might as well try resting. Li's eyes slowly closed, and she fell into her dreams.

* * *

England set down his cup of Earl Gray tea and studied the sheet of paper he had in his left hand. It was a diagram for a pentacle, part of a spell he was attempting to perfect. The idea for it had come to him the day of Japan's earthquake, while he was trying to organize aid to be sent to his friend. Once he completed it, it would hopefully help solve the problem of Japan's nuclear meltdown.

However, he was running into several problems. Normally he would have gone to his supernatural friends for advice, but he'd sent them to help Japan days ago. Japan's own supernatural beings were trying to help as best they could, but after years in the mountains their grasp of modern technology was sketchy at best.

And as if to compound his problems, his cell phone chose that moment to ring. England dug around in his pocket for a minute before finally grasping the phone and pulling it out. He stared at the screen, wondering if he should even answer.

_Caller ID: Russia._

Not answering would probably be more dangerous than answering, England reasoned, so he opened the phone and pressed it to his ear. "This is England speaking." He said brusquely. "State your business."

"Good afternoon, England!" You could hear the smile in Russia's voice, as if he was merely calling a friend to chat. Of course, England knew better. Years of competition between the two had made England warier of Russia than of any other nation, save perhaps France—although, he was wary of that bloody frog for a completely different reason.

"Good morning, Russia." England glanced out the window, where the sun was barely over the horizon. "Would you mind telling me why you've called? I have a very busy schedule for today, and I really can't talk for that long. Is this about the upcoming meeting?"

"нет," Russia replied, "I simply want to know why nobody invited me to the party at Austria's. It's been a week, and I only heard about it now. Latvia can have such a big mouth sometimes, can't he? Anyways, why didn't anyone invite me?"

"Well…uh…" England tried to think of an answer that would satisfy Russia, and came up with nothing. "I guess…we all just…just assumed someone else had invited you already?"

"Hm, I suppose that makes sense." Russia answered, and England nearly let out his breath in a sigh of relief. "But you all got to have so much fun, and I didn't!"

"W-well, it was really very impromptu, and we weren't using any formal guest list, we just showed up if we heard about it, you know?" England rushed his words, trying to form them faster than they wanted to. "Germany didn't hear about it either, or a lot of other Nations. The Africans and Asians didn't get to come, or Australia."

"Mm, I suppose that's true," Russia agreed. "But you all got to see Austria's guest, and it's been so long since I saw her. She did come to us at my place, after all…doesn't that mean I get to be her friend too?"

"Er…of course you're her friend too!" England said the words without thinking, then nearly smacked himself. Li had been so reluctant to stay with Russia, it was a fair bet she wanted to avoid him. "Um, you'll see her tomorrow, though. Now, if you don't mind, I have a spell to work on—"

"Oh dear, I do hope I don't find myself coming through the floor of your basement again," Russia laughed. He was probably trying to be funny, but the memory sent shivers down England's spine. How was it that summoning the greatest evil wound up bringing Russia? All right, maybe that was a stupid question…

The line went dead as Russia hung up. England held the phone to his ear for a minute longer before putting it down. Just how scary could Russia get?

* * *

Wulong paced along a short stretch of ground in the small forest they were resting in. Ru and Huo were lying on the ground a little ways away, sleeping. At least, Huo was asleep: Ru was still awake, no matter how she tried to hide it. Yue had told them to rest for a bit before disappearing. Huo had almost immediately drifted off, tired from the day of searching, but Ru had resisted a bit before finally lying down.

Now Wulong was the restless one, unable to clear her head of memories. She wondered if Ru was having a similar problem: every time Wulong closed her eyes, she could only see Li's face. It was stupid: it wasn't like she actually _cared_ for Li, not that much. If anything, they were acquaintances. Because Wulong would never become friends with a Firebender.

Still, Li was almost nothing like Wulong had always thought of Firebenders as being. To the forest spirit, they were always vague shadows with horns and flames coming from their fists. Wulong's mother, the original Wulong Forest, had died in their attack, but her death had resulted in the birth of her daughter, the current Wulong. Forest spirits were more than a little different from humans, in that Wulong had a few vague memories of the day of her birth. All that came to her when she thought about it was a red sky, flames from the heavens, and dark shadows that weren't clouds. The Fire Lord of that time, Fire Lord Ozai, had been defeated by the Avatar in the stone pillars, just inside Wulong's northern border.

But that didn't help when the memory of the pain struck. Wulong's birth had signified her mother's death, but as a consequence she had felt all the pain of her land as the fires raged. Her priest at the time had thought she would die, and in all honesty, she should have. An infant covered in burns? Who would have bet on her? Even the memory of that time, the agony as the ashes of her land blew in the wind, could make her body twinge all over.

Still, she had survived. Trees had grown again, the ashes of her mother giving birth to a beautiful new forest. The burned infant had healed, and Wulong's body was still covered in scars from that time. Now she was a proud, strong spirit, guardian of a stretch of land more lovely than anything. Her lifespan of 150 years kept her appearing as a child, but she did not doubt that, given time, she would mature into a lovely woman. And of course, as a spirit, she possessed the ability to change into the shape of an animal. A fox, to be specific.

It was a pity Li wouldn't see her fully-grown, to marvel at the power and dignity of an adult Wulong…

No! Stop that thought right there! She did not give a damn about Li, other than the obvious gratitude towards the woman who'd helped save her forest. Li had prevented the Tóngyī ShÌjiè from burning Wulong down so they could build a new capital on her ashes: that was the only reason Wulong wanted to save Li. After she had repaid her debt, Wulong would walk away from Li and never look back.

Well, maybe she would visit once or twice before Li died. Just to see how she was doing. Not because Wulong enjoyed Li's company or anything, because she definitely did not.

Wulong stopped her pacing for a moment to look up. The sky of the spirit world was always the same, a bland shade of blue that radiated light. She couldn't recall seeing a sun or a moon or stars, not once, not even a cloud! Admittedly, she had heard that there was a realm of the Spirit World that was all cloud, but Wulong hadn't really seen much of the Spirit World outside the areas that directly correlated to her forest. It had always been her intention to explore…and it seemed that now, she would.

Amongst the trees, a twig snapped. Wulong immediately snapped her head towards the noise, and Ru bolted up, hand producing a knife from who-knew-where. They both scanned the area, and didn't relax when nothing immediately appeared to explain the noise. Ru would never relax until she knew what it was, and Wulong's own experiences in her parts of the Spirit World had taught her that it was always best to be wary of sudden noises. Not all spirits were as nice as her.

Ru and Wulong exchanged a silent look, and moved towards the area where they'd heard the sound. A glance from Ru, and Wulong climbed a tree as high as she could go, scanning the branches below her for any sign of an enemy. But from what she saw, the forest might as well be empty of all life, save for her, Ru, and Huo.

Huo, of course, was still asleep. His sudden snore gave Ru and Wulong a start, and the two agreed with a look that they would stop actively searching for whatever had made that noise. Ru lay back down on the ground, eyes still open, and Wulong sat in a nearby tree to keep a lookout. Neither of them would get any rest until Yue returned.

* * *

In the trees above Wulong, amongst branches so thin one would not even expect a squirrel to be able to perch there, a large mass of brown fur peered at the two humans and their spirit friend.


	26. Vatican

**Me: Nnnnghmpf…**

**Li: Don't mind her. She was just up most of the night working on a pointless thing.**

**Me: Mmghf…**

**Li: Once this chapter's posted, she's probably going to fall asleep on the couch. She doesn't own Avatar or Hetalia.**

**Me: Aangf…**

**Li: I'll let you get to the chapter now. 'Scuse me while I go get some Sharpies and whipped cream. Hehehe…**

* * *

BUON COMPLEANNO, the banner read. Italy admired his work, the usual cheerful grin on his face. The date was March 17th, 2011, and he was officially one year older. So was his fratello, although neither showed the extra year. In fact, neither had appeared to have aged at all. It was one of the perks of being a nation.

But he wasn't thinking about how great it was to be a nation, with extended youth and the wealth of his people. Italy was thinking about how wonderful it was to be having a celebration with friends, and that it would be great to have his newest friend Li there. Of all the nations, Italy was perhaps the easiest to make friends with. He never saw the bad in people, or disliked anyone.

He was also regarded as the weakest, most useless, and worst friend a nation could have. Everyone said it—he was a coward, he was weak, he couldn't be trusted with secrets or anything important…and he even agreed. After all, he was just a silly boy who liked pasta and pizza! Everyone knew Italians were lovers, not fighters! Despite that, he kept being thrown into wars, when all he wanted to do was flirt with girls and paint pretty pictures!

Well, today was his birthday—his and his fratello's, even though they weren't twins. It was the day of the official unification of Italy. By all rights, there should only be one Italy now, but there was a distinct difference between the southern and northern parts of their country, like there was a difference between the east and west of Germany. It was how there could be an Italy Veneziano and an Italy Romano, and a Germany and a Prussia, instead of one of the two dying off. Technically, they were the same country—just representations of different parts.

"Hey! Veneziano!" Romano shouted, and the younger Italy brother stopped admiring his banner to look over at his brother. They were in the garden of their house, getting ready for the birthday party. Tables and chairs had already been set out, servers had been hired to work for the day, and guests were set to arrive in an hour or less.

"What is it, fratello?" Italy asked, unable to keep a large smile off his face. Today was a great day! Despite his brother's near-constant grumpiness, he himself was in a great mood. He wondered if he could get his fratello to smile too. That would be wonderful! His fratello didn't smile enough, and Hungary had always told Italy when he was younger that if you frowned your face would freeze that way. It would be horrible if Romano's face froze in a frown, although maybe it already had…no, it couldn't have! Romano smiled sometimes, though it was a really rare occurrence and only happened when girls were around…hey, maybe he would smile if some of the pretty girl-nations came to the party!

While Italy was thinking all this, Romano had been talking. He waited for a minute while his brother stared into the distance, slowly growing more and more annoyed, until he decided he'd given his little brother long enough to daydream. "Veneziano!" The older Italian screamed. "Did you hear a word I said?"

"Ve-? Ah, I'm so sorry fratello, I didn't!" Italy's eyes widened in panic. "Please forgive me! What were you talking about?"

"I was asking you to come and help me put the toppings on the pizza for later!" Romano grumbled. "Goddamnit Veneziano, why can't you just listen the first time I talk to you?"

"I was thinking about how nice it would be if you smiled, fratello!" Italy's smile widened, if that was at all possible, and his face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Don't you think you should smile more, Romano? We wouldn't your face to freeze that way!"

"Want my face to freeze _what_ way?" Romano demanded, striding over to his brother and grabbing him in a chokehold.

"Ahh! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please stop it, I'm so sorryyyyy!"

* * *

Li took another drink of her Turkish-style tea, which she doubted was real tea at all, and fingered the two small boxes that held her presents for the Italy brothers. Upon hearing that birthdays here usually included the giving of presents, she had debated what she could give Italy and Romano that they would like, and that she could actually acquire in the night and morning it would take before she arrived at their house with Hungary, Turkey, and Greece. Realizing Li's dilemma, Hungary had immediately offered to take her to one of Turkey's markets.

Seeing as Li's hangover had yet to die down, they had been forced to retreat back to Turkey's house after only half an hour. Li hadn't found anything, and after asking Hungary to tell her about the kinds of gifts the Nations usually got each other, she was starting to wonder if maybe buying them something was the right thing to do after all. She wanted to give them something they could remember her by when Ru found her and they went home—she wanted to give them something uniquely Fire Nation. Both Italies had been kind to her, and Li liked them. Italy was her friend, and his brother…he…well…Romano was…Li supposed he was sort of a friend too, although it was hard to tell.

So she'd asked Hungary for a few supplies, and had made the brothers what she hoped would be an acceptable gift. There didn't seem to be any specific category for what would be an acceptable birthday present and what wouldn't be an acceptable birthday present, nor did Hungary have any specifications for what the Italies would accept. That made sense—Italy was just so sweet he'd probably find a way to make animal droppings out as a thoughtful and caring gift, and Romano would likely find something at fault with any gift he was presented with.

"We're here!" Hungary announced, stopping her car. She had taken the ferry with Li, Greece, and Turkey the previous night, and had apparently asked a human associate to drive her car to the ferry's harbor for her. That associate had taken a train back to Hungary's capital city of Budapest immediately afterwards, and had called Hungary at some unspiritual hour of the night to inform her of her safe return home. Once Hungary had managed to quiet Turkey, who was extremely angry that someone had woken him up, and persuaded Li that murder was not a good thing, despite the sudden loud noise in their somewhat small bunkroom on the ferry bringing back Li's headache, she had thanked her friend and gotten directions to her car.

"Finally! I was starting to worry we were never gonna get there." Turkey stretched, managing to jostle Greece's present in the process. "Oy, Greece! Wake up!"

"Mm…I am…awake…" Greece muttered, eyes opening slightly to glare at Turkey before closing again.

"Hey, this may be rude, but…why do you sleep so much?" Li twisted in her seat, the one next to Hungary's up front, to look back at Greece. "You do it a lot, and I don't think I've ever seen you anything but tired. Is it some sort of condition?"

"No…I'm just…thinking…" Greece explained, voice soft. "Like, just now…I was…debating Aristotle's impact…on modern science…" The name reference fell flat with Li, who had no idea who Aristotle was or what he had contributed to science. For all she knew, he was the man who first determined how to scientifically give humans gills. Of course, she hadn't seen or heard of gilled humans, but they could be a minority, or the victims of genocide…Well, basically, she didn't understand Greece.

"Okay then." She opted for casual acceptance, sure that if it was something important, she would hear about it sooner or later. Greece opened his car door, and pulled his gift out, struggling a bit with the immense weight. Turkey, whose gift was somewhat smaller, climbed out on Greece's side.

"We'll have to do some formal introductions to some of the other nations, Li." Hungary warned. "You'll get to speak to the others you'll be staying with, and virtually none of the Asians have spoken to you."

"Will Japan be here?" Li asked, struggling to open her door. She had forgotten how it operated, despite Hungary explaining it to her earlier. This world's technology was just hard for her to grasp…

"Maybe." Hungary reached across Li to open her door for her, then got out of the car herself. A sheepish Li followed suit. "Most nations try to attend another Nation's birthday, despite any turmoil in their own country at the time. It's just one of those things we try to do for each other—our kind is small in numbers, so we mostly know each other and try to be there for our comrades on important occasions like birthdays. From what I've heard, Japan's got a small situation with a nuclear power plant, so he might be a little burned, but try not to draw attention to it. He was wounded much more severely after the second World War, and he went about his business as normally as he could then, so he probably won't appreciate stares."

"I'll keep that in mind." Li nodded, wondering what "nuclear" power was. She knew about animal and machine power, steam power and heat power, and of course Bending power, but otherwise she had no idea what "nuclear" power could be, or what it entailed. And what did it have to do with burns? Was it a scientific way of talking about harnessing fire energy? Did it have something to do with what caused earthquakes?

The street outside of Italy's house had been filled with cars, presumably from other nations. Talking and singing could be heard from the garden, hidden by a tall brick wall. Several decorations with what was presumably the writing used in Italy had been strung up where Li could see, and there were likely more in the garden and the house proper.

Li glanced around the street before following the nations into Italy's house. She liked Rome, not just for the warm weather and beautiful architecture, but for the friendly and open atmosphere. Several normal humans were walking through the street, and when Li caught the eye of an older woman, the elder waved and smiled at Li, saying something in Italian that sounded like a greeting. Not knowing what to say, Li returned the smile and gave a traditional Fire Nation gesture of respect, extending her left hand straight up and placing her fisted right hand at its base. It was symbolic of a master and servant, with the servant bowing at the master's feet. Usually Li was the one receiving it, but she always tried to show respect to people she didn't know.

"Welcome." Seborga greeted Li as she entered the house. "Nice seeing you again. I'd have gone with a fake noose in a doorpost this time around, but Romano started yelling at me about freaking out the guests, so I couldn't. I'll take your presents."

"Sure, here." Li handed over the small, flat boxes to the nation—well, he'd introduced himself as a micronation upon their first meeting, so Li supposed he was supposed to be called that instead of simply "a nation." She wondered if there were personifications for specific regions or provinces. In her world, some people in the Earth Kingdom identified themselves by the name of the province they lived in, rather than their overall nation, simply because the sheer vastness of the Earth Kingdom made it impossible to know just where somewhere came from by their clothing and customs alone.

"The party's in the garden, but some of the other nations have managed to find their way to the rest of the house." Seborga advised Li. "Italy and Romano are socializing near the kitchen. We set up a buffet, and you can get something to snack there if you're hungry, but there's gonna be a huge meal later, so try to save your appetite. It's pasta, if you're wondering. And pizza."

"Okay, thanks." Li smiled at the younger nation, then made her way through the Italies' house to their garden. True to Seborga's word, there were two tables arranged in a "V" pattern in a corner of the garden, with various dishes arranged on them. They didn't all seem to be Italian foods, from what little Li had learned of their cuisine on her previous stay. Several small groups of nations were scattered around the garden, talking and laughing.

Li slipped off to one side, where there was a somewhat secluded bench in the shade. She didn't know the first thing about this world's politics, history, society, geography, not even the flora and fauna, for crying out loud! While the Nations were being polite to her, there was a huge gap between them that prevented her from really understanding them. It didn't even seem like any of them realized that, because they had to be reminded that Li didn't know what certain technologies were, or how some jokes were funnier than others to the different nations.

If Li had to pick one Nation that seemed to truly appreciate how difficult a time Li was having in cultures completely foreign to her own, she would have said it was Hungary. Lithuania was a close second, but in the two and a half weeks since her arrival, Li had had the most contact with Hungary. She'd called Lithuania a couple of times, and seen him in person twice since leaving Russia's house, but that was the extent of their contact. Maybe they could have a chat once he arrived. Hungary had drifted over to a yellow-haired—no, blond—nation in a pink shirt, and the two were giggling over a picture Hungary had in her hand. Brief curiosity made Li squint in their direction, hoping to get a glance of the picture despite the distance, but she quickly returned to people-watching—or perhaps Nation-watching was a better word.

While Hungary and the blond nation were giggling on the far side of the garden, Turkey and Greece were bickering over something while getting food from the buffet. The Italies were presumably around the corner of the house, near the kitchen door, waiting for more pasta to appear. Hadn't Seborga mentioned them socializing? Spain was probably with them, because he struck Li as the sort of person to show up early for social functions like this.

Some Nations with dark skin were laughing in a group by a large flowerbed, and Li watched them for a moment before looking away. The darkest skin she had ever seen before coming to this world was on Water Tribe members, a light brown tone that was nothing compared to the rich shades of some Nations. And if they were so colored, how must their people be? It was almost incomprehensible to Li, that there were people with skin so dark in this world, but apparently there were! Her own world, which once seemed so full of varieties of physical appearances, was starting to seem bland in comparison.

Sitting on a bench a ways away from Li were two other Nations, one looking to be a man in his early twenties or late teens, the other a slightly younger girl in a long-sleeved red dress. Both had the same haircut, although the girl was wearing a blue ribbon in her hair. They seemed slightly familiar to Li, but that was probably only because they had attended the meeting that took place upon Li's…arrival. Li tried not to be too obvious about looking at them, but the girl caught her eyes as both glanced at the other. Embarrassed at having been caught, they each looked away quickly, faces slightly red. The girl's companion asked her a question, and Li could hear her stuttering a reply.

Not far away, a man with darkly tanned skin seemed to be speaking to thin air. Li frowned as she watched him go on about something or the other, movements jerky and uncoordinated. A bottle in his hand gave her an inkling of why that might be. But was he really so drunk already that he would talk to nothing? How long had he been drinking? Was his alcohol tolerance as low as Li's was? If that was the case, he really shouldn't be drinking at all…

Meanwhile, Cuba was complaining to Canada about how terrible it was to deal with Canada's brother America. The Latino Nation occasionally forgot who he was talking to and attempted to take out his anger upon "America."

It was about half an hour before Li started to run out of things to look at. She found the Nations fascinating, of course, but she kept noticing flowers that she was fairly sure didn't exist her world, or ones that she knew did and helped to provide Li with some sense of stability in the chaos of everything that was going on. Other things captured her attention too: occasional singing, or voices raised in Italian, floated over the walls of the garden, and the house itself kept distracting Li with new features she had only just noticed.

So she didn't hear the old man until he was sitting beside her, leaning on his battered wooden cane and watching the Nations with interest. Li had yet to meet a Nation that appeared older than their mid-twenties, although it was hard to tell with Turkey's mask, so she assumed this man must be one of the staff hired for the day. That didn't make much sense, because who would hire an old man with a cane? Unless he was just a relative of someone working here, in which case Li supposed it was understandable that he might have come with a child or grandchild to assist however he could. After all, many of the servants in the Palace at the Fire Nation Capital were descended from other servants.

"Hello there, my dear." The old man greeted Li cheerily. "And how are you this fine afternoon?"

"I'm doing very well, sir." Li answered politely, trying not to be too obvious about shifting away. It wasn't that she had something against old people, or even this man in particular: she just didn't enjoy parties that much, and for some inexplicable reason, whenever she attended a party her "space bubble"—the minimum amount of space between her and another person that let Li feel comfortable—seemed to expand. There were certain people who weren't recognized by her space bubble, such as Ru and Li's little brother Kuzon, and once her elder brother Aizo, but that number seemed to be getting smaller as the war with the Tóngyī ShÌjiè went on. Although, perhaps Italy would be acceptable…

"The brothers throw a wonderful party, don't you think?" The old man continued, not seeming to notice Li's shifting. "I've always thought so. And Veneziano is such a wonderful artist! He has so many museums and art galleries…of course, that rapscallion France keeps taking Italy's paintings. Someone really ought to give him a talking-to one of these days. Not me, though. I'm afraid I'm getting old. Terrible occurrence, it is. You spend your youth thinking you'll be forever young, strong, and beautiful, up until the day your body aches with every movement and your skin is wrinkled and you realize infants are suddenly adults."

"I'm afraid I can't relate, sir." Li managed to widen the distance between them by turning to face the old man. "After all, I'm still young myself. Maybe if you ask me in twenty or thirty years, I'll understand better."

"Nonsense! That's no time at all for a Nation!" The old man laughed, exposing somewhat yellowed teeth. His head was almost entirely bald, and his skin seemed to be covered in liver spots. He had amber-yellow eyes similar to Italy's, and like the upper class of the Fire Nation tended to have, and his eyebrows were a deep black that completely contradicted the wispy white strands around his scalp.

"Oh, I'm not a Nation, sir." Li corrected him hastily, not wanting to give him the impression she was lying if he found out the truth later. "I'm only a human. The Nations…well, they seem to have acquired me somehow, and I'm working as Austria's maid until I can find a better job. At least, I'm supposed to be Austria's maid, but with his home destroyed, I suppose I'm temporarily out of work until it's finished."

"So you're Li, then?" The old man fixed a steady, appraising eye on the young woman. Li, having received similar treatment from government officials and military officers before, sat still and let him take in what he could. His eyes noticed her short hair, somewhat unruly still since she had taken a nap in Hungary's car on the way to Rome, and the uneven nails on Li's hands from her clumsy attempts at handling nail clippers by herself. The eyes moved to take in her posture, hands folded on her lap as she looked slightly down and away from the elder in a show of deference to his assumed superior wisdom. He studied her face, which Li tried to keep as blank as possible. She wasn't very good at hiding her emotions: her friends could read her like an open book.

Eventually, he closed his eyes and nodded. "Well, yes, I suppose you'll do." He tapped a finger against his wooden cane, and gave Li an approving smile. "I must say, I do like your eyes, child. They're very sincere. You couldn't lie to someone without giving it away, could you?"

"No…I suppose I can't…" Li tried to keep her eyes averted, afraid this old man would see something in them she didn't want him to know. "I always get caught whenever I try to lie about something. Guess I just don't have it in me to lie, huh?"

"My dear, that's a blessing in disguise." The old man advised her. "You have little ability for deceit, and thus you cannot very well sin through deceit. The Lord has granted you this so that you might be free from the Prince of Lies' evil whispers."

"Um…well, I've been a fugitive until recently." Li sighed. "I had to be deceitful to survive. It really didn't seem like a blessing then."

"Ah, but you did survive, did you not?" The old man smiled at Li. "Praise the Lord, for he has kept you safe through adversity!"

"Hey, Li's here!" Italy's voice hit Li's ears, and the girl looked up to see Italy charging towards her. She had the presence of mind to stand up and brace herself as roughly a hundred and fifty pounds of enthusiastic Italian collided with a hundred and twenty pound Firebender. Neither of them wound up on the ground, but Li fell back onto the seat heavily. Italy wound up between her and the old man, arms wound around Li in an enthusiastic hug.

"Ow…hi Italy…" Li giggled a bit, returning the hug quickly before patting Italy on the head and drawing back. He let go of her a bit reluctantly, and produced a bun out of nowhere.

"Hungry?" He offered it to Li, who accepted out of politeness and took a bite. She suspected it might have been Italy's cooking, because it tasted homemade and seemed to have tiny bits of tomatoes embedded in it. "Why are you sitting over here, Li? Don't you wanna hang out with the rest of us? Germany's almost here, Prussia and Romano were texting a little bit ago and fratello told me! Well, actually he started swearing and yelling at me for inviting Germany in the first place, but anyways, Germany's almost here!"

"Italy!" The old man spoke, putting a hand on the young Nation's shoulder. "You should not be so forward with a young woman like that. Please remember your manners. Miss Li, I am so sorry, he is like this very often."

"But Vaticaaaaan!" Italy protested, face falling. Li started—this was the Vatican? He was much different from what she had expected. Such as…well, she'd pictured him as having more hair. And looking taller.

It occurred to Li that she hadn't been showing the personification of the capital of one of this world's major religions the respect he was due. Hungary had told her that the different Nations had different feelings about the Vatican City, some quite strongly, and Li had been agonizing over meeting him during her stay at the Italies'. Due to some unspecified reason, he'd been confined to his bed all through her stay, so she'd been unable to pay her respects. The Italies never brought him up in conversation, and Li wasn't sure if they would take offense if she did, so she hadn't discussed him with his housemates.

All of this passed through her mind in the second it took her to push Italy far enough away for her to stand up and bow. "I'm so sorry for my disrespect!" Li cried. "Please forgive me, Vatican, sir! I didn't realize it was you!"

"Hm? Oh, you've been very polite, Miss Li, don't worry." The Vatican waved a hand. "I've rather enjoyed our conversation, however short it was. But since Italy apparently wishes to speak to you, I'll just return to my room and read an essay on the nature of the Transfiguration. I hope you enjoy the party."

"Um…" Li blinked as the Vatican stood and walked away. "It was…nice to…meet…you?" The Nation half-turned and waved, then continued on his way. Italy, sitting on the bench, didn't seem at all perturbed by the exchange. Li glanced down at him. "Is he always like that?"

"Like what, Li?" Italy asked, tilting his head slightly.

"Like…well…that?" Li shrugged. "I'm not sure how to describe it…he just seemed…sort of…grandfatherly?" That didn't quite describe the impression she'd gotten from the Vatican, but Li wasn't sure how else to put it. He was the kind of man Li would expect to know all the answers back home, either because he was a learned man or a sage. If you presented him with an issue, he would immediately have an answer. And it would follow his personal morality, even if every bone in your body screamed he was wrong, and he would not back down from his answer.

"Oh, that's just how he is." Italy smiled. "He's mostly inhabited by really old men who have high positions in the Catholic Church, so he has some really strong ideals. We haven't been getting along that much lately, though…" Italy's words were cut off as there was a loud screeching from the street, followed by the slam of several car doors and some very loud yelling. Li couldn't understand the words, but it sounded vaguely familiar…

"Bruder, du fahrst nicht mehr! Du fahrst wie ein Italienischer!"

"Wir sind in Italien, West! Auß erdem war es nur ein paar Mülltonnen!"

"What's—?" Li began, but Italy leaped up and hugged her again.

"Ve~! Germany's here!"

* * *

**Me: Oh look, Germany's here. I won't translate the German, because it might take away from next week's chapter. Hope you liked the chapter. Review and tell me what you think!**


	27. Crash

**Me: So, Li…**

**Li: Wha?**

**Me: Last week, after posting, I woke up to find my face covered in whipped cream…**

**Li: Oh, you must've been pissed, huh? Well, it wasn't me. It was…Huo. You know he's always to blame.**

**Me: Actually, no, I'm not mad. I love whipped cream! Hm, how can I repay Huo…**

**Li: O.O Uh…I mean…no! It wasn't Huo! It was me! I swear!**

**Me: Oh, like I'm gonna believe you. Now, what can I do for Huo that'll make him happy… *evil smirk***

**Huo: You knoooooow!**

**Me: Too bad I don't feel like it!**

**Li: Thank you…**

**Me: I'll just try putting in a little scene later on…**

**Li: I HATE YOU MORE THAN COWS. And I hate cows…**

**Me: I know that. Remember, I created you? Yeah.**

**Li: Haaaaate…you don't own Hetalia or Avatar…so why must you own me…**

**Huo: This is the part where I tell you that Karen's finally done something with the character art her friend made! She put it up on her DeviantART profile Karen0DuLay-with a zero-because she isn't sure if her friend would appreciate her telling you all where to find the friend's profile. There are pictures of everyone from her and the Fair One's future A:TLA fic...well, not everyone. A few people are still missing. But as soon as the Fair One gets Karen's character art back to her-hint hint Fair One!-that's gonna go up too. Oh, and she's been doing a lot of random drawing lately, so you might get to see some of that go up eventually. Plus if the Fair One will let her borrow the sketchbook with the comic for her webcomic so Karen can scan it in, that might go up too, and-**

**Me: They get the picture! To the story!**

* * *

Germany was not in the best of moods as he stood outside Italy's house. His day had begun with his brother waking Austria with a bucket of ice-cold water, and things had only devolved since then. Austria broke three plates, and blamed it all on Germany, then seemed to think he was entitled to the largest sausages at breakfast. Prussia had challenged that, and the two had a very loud argument over whose sausage was bigger.

That brought Germany's elderly neighbor Adelaide to his door, demanding to know why his brother had to have an argument with his lover so early in the morning. And of course Prussia and Austria had to hear _that,_ which resulted in a long tirade about how much they hated each other, bringing up several historical events as evidence. Adelaide didn't know that they were Nations, so Germany had to more-or-less push her out before scolding his brother and Austria.

Then, before the sun began to rise, they got on a train for Italy. Germany had booked them seats in the coach section, trying to save money. In retrospect, he really should have gone with first-class. Austria complained all throughout the ride that the seat was uncomfortable, the train was dirty, Prussia was sitting next to him and being too loud…and of course there were crying children making enough background noise to give anyone a headache. Despite his attempts to focus on his book, Germany had barely gotten through a chapter.

At last, after hours of travel, they arrived in Rome. Austria was supposed to arrange for a rental car at the train station, but of course he had forgotten, so Prussia had to arrange for a cheaper version last-minute. Because Prussia rented the car, Prussia got to drive the car, and…not to be rude to Italians, but that's what Prussia drove like. Japan often cited Italy as the reason for his drive to build safer cars. Germany loved his brother, he truly did, and when he was younger he had looked up to him as if the elder German was a god, but…would it kill his brother to be a little more responsible?

All of this had brought them to the present moment, standing outside Italy's house, the rental car wrapped around a pole and passer-bys staring at the three insane Germans. Germany was staring at the car with wide eyes and a panicked face, while his elder brother laughed like a maniac. Austria seemed to have gone into shock, and was just looking at the destruction with a pale face.

Hungary burst through the door to the Italy house, took in the scene, and immediately produced her frying pan. "Prussia!" She screamed. "What did you _do_?"

"It's Italy…I just drove like an Italian!" Prussia replied before he realized who it was. "A-ah…verdamnt…" The elder German brother immediately darted around the car. "Nobody got hurt, I swear! Unless you count trash cans, the pole, and the car itself as people, in which case several people got hurt, but they were in my way! Seriously, everyone inside the car's fine!"

"I'm afraid he's telling the truth." Austria sighed, using one finger to push his glasses up his nose. "It was somewhat terrifying, but none of us are injured. Please put the frying pan away, before someone calls the police. Italy would not take it well if you were arrested on his birthday."

Hungary sent Prussia another glare, but grudgingly stowed her frying pan. She walked over to Austria and gave him a once-over with her eyes, trying to see if he was really unhurt. There didn't seem to be any obvious blood, bruises, or broken bones, so the female Nation turned her attention to the street. Several trash cans were lying on their sides, with large dents, and there looked to be matching dents on the car.

It was at this point Germany recovered his voice. "Bruder, du fahrst nicht mehr! Du fahrst wie ein Italienischer!" He roared.

"Wir sind in Italien, Westen! Auß erdem war es nur ein paar Mülltonnen!" Prussia grinned. Hungary seemed to have given up on the thought of harming him, in favor of taking Austria into the house and calling the rental agency. There was still the chance that she would try to give Prussia a concussion later, but at the moment, the ex-nation was safe.

Switzerland charged out of the Italies' house, Cuba close behind. It looked like Cuba was pulling some invisible friend along, but that really didn't make much of an impression. Cuba was well known for talking to the air, or even attacking it thinking it was America.

Canada, being pulled along by Cuba, was thoroughly scared by the noises of the crash, and had only come out of the garden because Cuba made him. Now it seemed that Cuba had even forgotten about his grip on Canada's collar, as he was waving his arms around like mad, shouting about bank robbers. No one else was paying attention to him.

"What happened here?" Switzerland demanded, readying his gun. Prussia paled a little, impressive since he was an albino, and began to stammer about driving like at Italian. Germany wasn't in the mood to help his elder brother—he was too busy staring at the car, wondering who would pay for the damages. Seeing as Prussia technically didn't exist anymore, and therefore was broke and had to mooch off of his younger brother, it was most likely that Germany would have to take responsibility.

Switzerland was holding his head in his hands, trying to stop a growing headache, and Cuba was ogling at the disaster while talking to his invisible friend about it, when Italy burst through the front door of his house, looking panicked, dragging a somewhat startled Li behind him.

"Germany! Are you okay? Hungary said you crashed into a pole!" Italy shouted, eyes wide with concern. He released Li's wrist, and began attempting to tackle Germany in hug—what America had recently been calling a "glomp." Where he derived such a term, Germany had no idea, but knowing the enthusiastic young nation—although, he was older than Germany—it was likely he had just made it up himself.

"Actually, it looks like Prussia did the crashing." Cuba pointed out. "Oh, I don't think I've met your friend there yet. Hi, I'm Cuba."

"Hi." Li gave Cuba a quick smile and a slight bow, then turned her attention back to the crash. "Was anyone hurt? Austria seemed fine when we saw him, but I'm no Healer."

"Nein, mein bruder and I are fine." Germany shook his head, rubbing his temples. "Although I suspect my brother might not be fine if Hungary finds any sort of injury on Austria. But he was in the backseat, and we ran into a pole, so the only thing that could have happened to him is whiplash."

"Whiplash? What's that?" Li frowned, tilting her head slightly as her eyebrows knit together between her eyes. Then she seemed to remember that there was a car wrapped around a pole not ten feet from her, and she glanced at it in alarm. "Um…was that your car?"

"It was a rental." Germany ground his teeth at his brother's ineptitude. "But now I will have to pay for it, because mein bruder has no money." How was he going to afford this, what with the aid he was sending Japan even now? His brother could have the worst timing for his little stunts…

And, thinking of Japan, he was supposed to be here. As a former fellow Axis power, Germany felt concerned for his friend. If you could truly call them friends, as Germany never knew what the other Nation was thinking. Well, maybe his injuries were delaying his travel. Yes, that was probably it.

Li was frowning at nothing in particular, brow furrowed in what seemed to be concentration. Since she wasn't making any loud noises, or attempting to cling to Germany with three or four of her limbs, the young woman was mostly ignored by Germany in favor of Italy, Switzerland, Cuba, and Prussia. Well, Cuba was saying something about international mobs and Romano, but he was always saying something foolish anyways. Italy's attempts to "comfort" his friend were annoying, but after all they had gone through in World War Two, Germany was very good at ignoring or humoring him.

That left Switzerland and Prussia to occupy most of Germany's attention. Switzerland had a threatening hand on his gun, and Prussia was yelling about how he would, of course, _never_ drive like this near the borders of Switzerland or Liechtenstein. But especially Liechtenstein. No, no, his fingers were not crossed, honest! Not his toes, tongue, legs, any body part at all!

"I-I'll never even drive again, swear!" Prussia babbled. In his day, he had been a feared, ruthless soldier. Switzerland had never dared to threaten him then. But times were different, he was now considered an ex-nation, and as such anybody could bully him without fear of his military wrath. Although, there was always his little brother to worry about…

Germany stepped between Switzerland and his brother. "Mein bruder is sorry, and will apologize to Italy." Germany assured the Swiss nation. "In the meantime, please relax. I would not allow him to behave like this near you or your sister. Go back to the party, I will handle this situation." Switzerland waited a moment to answer, face unreadable.

"Fine." The gunman snapped. He turned and walked back into Italy's house, likely regretting he didn't just shoot Prussia from the start. Li tried to follow him, but Italy chose then to stop bugging Germany and start hugging Li, wailing about how scared he had been.

Germany began to rub his temples again. He really didn't need this…

* * *

In Li's home universe, a beautiful woman was sitting on the desk of a middle-aged man, looking completely and seductively beautiful. Her short black hair had probably been given over an hour of attention to achieve the silky texture it possessed. Blue eyes framed by thick black lashes, half-lidded, regarded two soldiers before her with a deceptive calm. One leg was slung over the other, displaying lightly tanned skin through a slit in the side of her blue outfit. She had her cheek resting on one carefully-positioned hand, elbow set on her crossed leg.

"Are you certain," she inquired, tone dangerously pleasant, "that your intelligence is correct?"

"Yes, Lady Meiko, we are." One of the soldiers, a man in his late twenties with brown hair and a short beard, answered reluctantly. He and his partner wore black and white armor with the Tóngyī crest placed over the heart, their helmets held at their sides. His partner, a younger man, had long black hair and was clean-shaven. Both knew that Meiko was not a force to be dismissed. She was a personal agent of the leader of the Tóngyī ShÌjiè, Monk Gege, and held a military rank equivalent to a General.

"I fail to see how it can be." Meiko's calm face briefly slipped, and anger tinted her eyes as she snarled, _"I killed her with my own two hands!"_

"M-my lady, our source has never failed us before." The younger soldier stammered. "He told us quite clearly that after your departure, the body of the war criminal Li Wu of the Fire Nation was moved into the Spirit Oasis, not cremated, and that the Avatar and the war criminal Long Ru Jing of the Fire Nation seem to have entered trances at the banks of the Oasis. The other members of the group called 'Team Avatar' have entered a state of semi-mourning, but seem to believe their comrades still live."

"Li Wu died in an empty plaza the night before last, under the full moon." Meiko spat. "Her blood was drained from her body. There wasn't even enough left in her for her heart to beat. I _used_ that blood to facilitate the healing of Long Ru Jing, who _should_ have committed suicide upon seeing that her charge had been killed, sacrificed to save her life. So, again I ask you: how can this be?"

"It would seem that the Avatar was able to save her somehow, using his abilities." The young soldier replied. "Nobody but the Avatar, Long Ru Jing, and Li Wu know exactly what happened at the time, but a nearby civilian claims that there was a bright glow emanating from the area of the Spirit Oasis shortly after their arrival. When other members of their party, namely the Air Nomad monk Xing and his Free Nomad cousin Si Wang, arrived at the Oasis, the Avatar and Long Ru Jing were already in spiritual trances."

"That is enough." The man sitting behind the desk Meiko was perched on raised a hand. Hearing his voice, the soldiers immediately closed their mouths, clapped their hands to their sides, and bowed at the waist. "You may both leave. I would like written reports from each of you, and perhaps more corroborating evidence to help convince Meiko of the validity of your claims. Until then, we long for balance: we long for unity: we long for one world. Dismissed."

The elder soldier bowed a little deeper, then quickly strode out the door, seeming grateful to have escaped Meiko's wrath. His younger companion hesitated for a moment before noticing the dark look in Meiko's eyes, and hastened to follow his friend. Once both were out of sight, Meiko turned to the old man with a pleading look on her face.

"My liege," she whispered, tongue flicking out of her mouth to lick her lips, "you know it cannot be true. I would never fail you. Do not believe the lies of petty and jealous people, who would see me ousted from my spot as your favorite subordinate."

"Meiko." The man's lips, partially masked by a dark brown beard of perhaps six inches in length, curved up in a smirk. "You know that nothing can ever take you from your place at my side. But other, petty, jealous individuals, as you put it, are not always lying. I myself know for certain that your mission at the Northern Water Tribe was a failure."

Meiko recoiled from her master in shock. "But…but…there is no way for her to have survived!" The Water Tribe woman cried in astonishment. "I know I killed her—I know it! Please, my liege, my lord, you must believe me! She cannot be alive, she cannot be! No force upon this mortal world could have saved her life!"

"Indeed. No mortal force." The bearded man rubbed his bald head, and sighed. "But my dear, I am afraid immortal forces have intervened, in this case."

"What?" Meiko's eyes, shining with tears of desperation and shame, widened. "My lord Gege…you cannot mean…"

"The Moon Spirit herself preserved the life of the Fire Lord, whom you were sent to kill." Monk Gege, supreme leader of the Tóngyī ShÌjiè, nodded curtly. "After you cut open her throat and drained her blood, Li Wu's soul was sent to the Spirit World, to be preserved until such a time as her body might be fully healed. In the Spirit World, one of the spirits stole her soul and cast it into one of countless other mortal realms, where a new body in the exact likeness of the old one was formed by the spirit to contain her soul."

"So…it is not my fault…that I failed…" Meiko slid off the desk, and kneeled before it, folding her hands upon the wood and bowing her head. "Please forgive me, my lord…please absolve me of this blemish upon my service to you…"

"Rise, child. You are forgiven." Gege placed his left hand over Meiko's folded ones, tone kind. "None of the blame for this can be laid at your feet."

"Then…my lord, how am I to complete this task for you?" Meiko's voice was agonized, thick with unshed tears. "Tell me how I may serve you, and rid the mortal worlds of Fire Lord Li."

"Her soul cannot survive a year's separation from her mortal body." Gege informed his servant, squeezing her hands gently before removing his own. "And time in the different mortal worlds passes differently. She might very well die from this within the day…but conversely, it could also be centuries before her soul fails. The link between her soul and body, wounded though her body may be, still exists—but her soul will decay once it has spent too long apart from its proper vessel, and she will be forced to enter the Lands of the Dead."

"Shall we leave her be, my lord?" Meiko raised her face to look at her master, some slight hope shining through her despair at having failed him. "Will she die with no aid from us?"

"Yes…but the fact that the Avatar and Long Ru have entered the Spirit World as well disturbs me." Gege began to stroke his beard, staring into the distance above Meiko and frowning. "Undoubtedly, they have gone to retrieve her soul. They might fail…but it is always best to assume your enemies have flawless plans. So…go. Meet with your brother and Duyao. Determine what you shall do. I will give you no command, other than what you have already been told: ensure the deaths of those who would spit on our noble ideals. It is left to you to interpret how to fulfill this goal. Now leave, and begin your preparations, whatever they may be."

"Yes, my liege…I shall…I swear upon my Bending, I shall do as you say." Meiko gushed, bowing low to kiss the floor before the desk before rising and leaving.

In the hallway, she found her comrades waiting for her. Her younger brother Lanko was leaning against the wall next to the door, fingering a whalebone sword hanging from his thigh. Across the hall from him, Duyao stood at attention, hands clasped behind her back and feet spread at shoulder width.

"What'd the boss-man say?" Lanko yawned, revealing crooked but clean teeth. He raised a hand to cover the yawn, and then spat into it, wiping the spittle off on the metal wall behind him.

"Li Wu is dead. Spirits intervened, and she now sleeps in the Spirit Oasis of our former home." Meiko informed him. "We have a job to complete. Go prepare your weapons."

"Ooh—my big sis failed?" Lanko's mouth twisted into a grin. "Bet that ruffled your feathers. Don't tell me, you're off the job?"

"Of course not, you fool." Meiko spat. "I remain in my position as our leader. Lord Gege realizes I could not have prevented the spirits from doing as they please, and has honored me by giving me the responsibility of ensuring the criminal Li Wu's death. Perhaps you could stop gloating over my situation and contribute to a solution?"

"We will have to pass through the entire Northern Water Tribe to reach her." Duyao noted, voice dull and emotionless. "None can survive the tundra that surrounds it, not even the native people. Your failure to finish the Fire Lord when you could have has resulted in a large problem for us."

"Could I have prevented the spirits from saving her by separating her body and soul? No? Then don't blame me for the doings of beings I cannot possibly influence!" Meiko growled. "Her soul has been sent to another world. In a year's time, it will sicken and decay, but until then she still lives. We cannot even presume how long it will take, because time passes differently in other worlds than in ours!"

"Then the best way to kill her would be to find a way into the Spirit World and destroy her soul in this other world." Duyao surmised. She relaxed her position, and began to walk down the hall, away from Meiko and Lanko. "Perhaps you should consult with a sage on this matter. As for me, I must return to my room. The poison I left distilling should be nearly finished now."

"Freak." Lanko remarked as Duyao disappeared around a corner. Meiko's eyes narrowed. Before Lanko could react, she Bended a small amount of water from the air and used it to slap him across the face. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Duyao is technically your superior." Meiko snapped. "As she would say, respect your betters!"

"Meh…you know how I am with that." Lanko chuckled. "I'm chronically disrespectful. It's why I wound up murdering that fiancé of yours and getting us kicked out of the Tribe."

"I remember." Meiko's mind drifted to the days she had when lived in the Northern Water Tribe with her brother. Their father, a hunter, had died when Lanko was still an infant, and their mother pined herself away for a year before finally following him, leaving a six-year-old Meiko to fend for a baby brother who ate more than she could produce for him. And all while she saw the Chief and his family growing fat on food given to them by their destitute citizens, while only the bare charity of their neighbors kept the siblings from startavion…

Had it been a relief when Lanko killed Nolu? The man had offered her a betrothal necklace when she was fifteen, fed her and her ten-year-old brother more than they could have afforded on their own. But he'd thought that made them both his property, and had no qualms about beating either when he was displeased or drunk. Meiko had shielded her brother from Nolu as best she could, offering up her body and her dignity to keep Lanko safe. When Lanko couldn't accept the pain his sister went through for him any more, when Lanko snapped and chopped Nolu into pieces…had that been a relief?

* * *

In his study, Monk Gege was sitting back in his chair, staring at a picture that hung on the wall. Those who saw it were first silent, then doubtful of him and his intentions, but none had spoken to him about it yet. He wasn't sure what he would do when someone asked him about it—tell a lie? Say it was to remind him of his enemies, to prod him into action? Maybe he would tell the truth, but then again, maybe she would come back to life and tell him she had always loved him, like he had loved her for nearly thirty-five years…

_"Look, Xan, it's a girl."_

He had ordered the picture commissioned when he was still a teenager, when he still harbored the hope that one day…one day…

_"Xan…I think I'm in love with someone."_

Her words, innocent though they were, shared with someone she only thought of as a best friend and nothing more, had cut him to pieces inside. Did she realize later how much he loved her? When she took her last breath, had she known that his old self, that _Xan_, would die with her? As she slowly learned she had been married to a man whose heart belonged to another, to a mere _servant_, had any sort of feelings at all bloomed in her heart for him?

_"He…he already has a child…with that…that _woman_…"_

Gege liked to think that she had loved him as well. Perhaps she had never been able to distinguish her love from friendship, and that was why she had not told her parents to arrange a marriage with him, instead of that _man_.

_"Xan! You won't believe the news I have for you!"_

It would have been better if she had chosen him instead. If she had, she would be alive, with him, and they would have had those ten children she always talked about. The man she chose hadn't touched her for ten whole years!

_"It's a bit late, but…at least I'm getting started on that brood, huh?"_

Why hadn't she chosen him? What deception had that man used to persuade her to marry him? How had he tormented her, to drive her mad? All the blame was at his feet, his, no one else's!

_"Hm? Who are you, again?"_

Monk Gege put his head in his hands. It was all Fire Lord Jizo's fault that his beloved Song was dead. Fire Lord Jizo had twisted what was once a pure, innocent girl into someone capable of murdering a woman in cold blood. Gege's Song…his beautiful Lady Song…she was dead because her husband had insisted on having her at his side on that day, at the party in the Earth King's Palace, when all the rulers and nobles and generals in the room were captured and killed.

_"So, what should I name my baby?"_

But Song had left behind something more precious than gold or silver, sweeter than honey. She had left behind a precious gift to the world, a Song in miniature, a child that was so alike to her mother just the thought of seeing her face, Song's face, once more made Gege's heart heavy with pain.

_"She's my gift to the world…I know!"_

Song was dead…but her daughter remained. The very daughter Gege's own words called to be executed.

_"I'll name her Li Wu…Li!"_

He knew what was best for the world. Nothing could stand in the way of him saving the world, for future generations to enjoy. Gege couldn't _afford_ anything to stand in the way for him, be it personal, political, spiritual, philosophical…nothing!

_"Promise me you'll protect her, Xan?"_

Even if he had to break a sacred promise to the woman he loved. Even if he had to see that woman die all over again through her daughter. He would do it, because that was what the world needed. The world needed to be one, one people, one nation, one world, united under goodness and love and trust. And damn his soul if he didn't see that just that happened.

"I'm sorry, Song…" Gege murmured, feeling tears threaten to well up in his eyes. "I can't protect her and the world at the same time…"

* * *

**Me: Meet the Villains.**

**Li: O.O That…that was such a creepy…why would you write that…that last part...that was just...**

**Me: …I don't really know…. The Fair One and I agreed it would be an interesting dynamic to add to the story, and it's late at night and I'm slightly addled by sleep deprivation…**

**Li: So long as you don't pull my brothers into this. I'd hate to see them subjected to this stupid story.**

**Me: ….**

**Li: You didn't…**

**Me: Technically no…not yet….….….…*runs***

**Li: *chases***

**Huo: So, Karen would like to know what you think. Li gets a cookie for each review, so if you don't want her to starve, send one in. If you're just gonna praise this story, that's fine, but what Karen needs is criticism—constructive, preferably. How else can she improve?**


	28. Bracelets

**Me: ...It's Thursday.**

**Li: Your powers of observation astound me.**

**Me: I thought it was Tuesday yesterday...seems I have no brain this week...**

**Li: You had a brain before?**

**Me: ...I don't own Hetalia or Avatar.**

**Li: Just me. Graaaagh.**

* * *

"Okay, it's time to open the presents!" Prussia announced after the last empty plate had been taken away by the servers. Many of the Nations who had decided to attend the Italies' party—some eighty in total, most of whom Li did not recognize—began to clamor for the Italies to open their present first, no mine, no mine is the best, no, no, mine…

"Ve~, fratello, didn't you promise Spain you would open his gift first this year?" Italy whispered, leaning over to speak more confidentially with his brother.

"Yeah…stupid tomato bastard, I only said that to make him stop hugging me…" Romano growled. He turned to Prussia and said, "I'll be taking Spain's present first this year. Tell Seborga to run and get the goddamn present."

"Everybody! It seems Romano will be opening Spain's present first this year!" Prussia announced.

"He always opens Spain's present first!" Sealand, who was sitting with Wy and currently-absent Seborga at the "Micronations' Table," the Nation version of a kiddy table, pouted. "And I got them a really cool present too…"

"Sealand, you got them a Power—" Wy began, but Sealand quickly shushed her. "I'm just saying, you get everybody the same thing every year, ever since you got into that show back in 1993. We all have valuable collections at this point. Except for the ones who just throw them away the next day."

"Huh?" Sealand's eyes widened in terror, and he started wailing to Latvia, seated with the Nations, about how nobody appreciated him. Latvia was sitting next to Russia, who was directing small smiles at him in a way that had the smaller Nation trembling like a leaf and convinced he would be murdered if he responded to his friend.

"Okay, here's Spain's present." Seborga reappeared from inside the house, and handed Romano a basket of tomatoes.

"You couldn't even use any goddamn wrapping paper, Tomato Bastard?" Romano screamed.

"I couldn't afford any." Spain laughed, rubbing the back of his head. Romano groaned, but plucked a tomato from the basket and began to eat. He offered one to Belgium, sitting three people down from the head of the table where he and Italy sat, and another to Li, sitting next to Italy, but both declined.

"My turn, my turn!" Italy grinned. "Umm…" He looked out at the sea of expectant and bored faces, trying to pick one. "I'll take…Germany's present!"

"Because you haven't done _that_ every year since World War Two…" Netherlands muttered, glaring at Spain, who was sitting between him and Romano. Everyone else ignored him.

Seborga disappeared briefly, and reappeared with a small rectangle wrapped in shiny green paper. He handed it to the enthusiastic representative of Northern Italy, who quickly tore the paper off to reveal a hardcover book in Italian, titled _Forza di Volontà_.

"You lack willpower. That book is an instruction manual for gaining willpower." Germany rumbled from his seat next to Belgium, giving Italy a hard stare. "Hopefully you will read it, and follow it's lessons well."

"Sure I'll use it, Germany!" Italy beamed. "Vatican's desk has been shaky lately, but this is the perfect thickness to fix it!"

"No, Italy, you _read _books! _Read_ them!" Germany groaned. Italy tilted his head in confusion, and set the book on the cleared table before him. Li leaned forward a bit, curious, but couldn't make heads or tails of the symbols on the front of the book. She sat back in her chair, slightly disappointed, though she couldn't see why. It wasn't like she could learn whole new languages in the space of a few weeks. Still, after living in this world for seventeen days, she'd have expected to have learned at least something of their odd script. Maybe once she was finished with her travelling she could ask Austria to teach her…

"Romano's turn! Romano, whose present will you open?" Prussia asked dramatically, pointing to himself and winking. Romano looked around the somewhat long table, and caught sight of Belgium's hopeful smile.

"I'll take…Belgium's." Romano decided, a light blush on his cheeks as he remembered her offer to kiss him when he was still a child. Wait, he _still _couldn't think about that without blushing? That probably didn't bode well for his chances of getting a nice girlfriend…damnit, no, he had to stop blushing!

Seborga was handing him Belgium's present now, a squishy package wrapped in yellow and red striped paper. Romano opened it carefully, not sure if he would damage what was inside. It fell out the moment there was a large enough opening, and he tossed the paper carelessly to one side before picking it up.

"Um…a…um…what is this, exactly?" Romano looked up at Belgium in confusion. "Is it a…knitted blanket?"

"No, it's a sweater! See the arm and head holes?" Belgium leaned across her brother to point them out to Romano better, a bright smile on her face that gave her a slightly cat-like look. "I spent a whole five months knitting it just for you! Do you like it?"

Romano swallowed hard—no, he did not gulp, damnit!—and looked Belgium in the eye. He could tell the truth and say it was a bad present and crappily made, or he could lie and say he loved it. And Belgium looked so damn eager to hear his opinion…

"I…I…love…it…" Romano's croaked out through a dry throat. Belgium practically beamed at him, and her eyes momentarily closed as she tilted her head and gave him a full-blast Cute Girl Smile™.

Seborga saved him by asking Italy whose present he would open next. Prussia, looking more than a little annoyed, repeated the question in a louder tone of voice. He seemed to think this was some sort of game show—or he was just bored. Likely bored. The ex-Nation was notorious for the things that happened when he was bored.

"Hmm…how about…" Italy considered his options. France always gave presents that made Romano and Germany get mad at him—at France, not Italy—and Prussia's gifts were usually oriented around Prussia himself. Japan liked to give food, but Italy was full from all the pasta he'd eaten. England gave food too, only it was usually his disgusting scones, and nobody liked those

Wait! He knew whose present he would open next! "Ve~, how about Li's?" He suggested. Seborga ran into the house as Prussia announced Italy's choice to everyone else, who had heard Italy the first time.

Li, however, was shifting uncomfortably in her seat. All of her confidence that the Italies would like their presents was evaporating as she started to think about it. She hadn't had much time to work on them, and she'd had to add in a final twist minutes before needing to pack them in the small boxes Hungary had procured, so Li had quite a few doubts about the level of craftsmanship she'd been able to show in them.

"Okay, here it is," Seborga reappeared with a small box clutched in his hands. "I couldn't hear anything when I shook it, but it may have just been padded with tissue paper or something, so it could still be something cool."

"Just because it doesn't make any noise doesn't mean it's not a great present, y'know!" Wy shouted from the Micronation table. Seborga shrugged and handed Italy the present.

Italy regarded the small box for a moment before beginning to open it. Someone—likely Hungary, due to Li's apparent unfamiliarity with things he considered normal—had wrapped the box in glossy white wrapping paper, and tied it together with green and red ribbon. A fancy knot that Italy remembered from previous gifts Hungary had given him adorned the top, where the ends of the paper had been neatly folded.

Then he started ripping into the present, tearing the paper away with childish glee. This was the second-best part of getting presents: taking off the wrapping paper, seeing what was underneath, making a mess he could get away with and that Germany wouldn't scold him for, however grudgingly that might be.

And the paper was off, revealing a simple gift box, a plain brown cardboard. The box could fit in the palm of his hand, and he was more than a little curious to know what was inside. Had Li given him some small trinket she'd found on her travels? Maybe even those pipes she'd shown him after her mysterious disappearance in Greece?

Some simple twine was wrapped around the box, and Italy undid the bow carefully, setting the twine aside. He liked twine, and yarn, and just string in general. They reminded Italy of pasta. Plus, they were really fun to play with.

Italy took the lid off the top of the box carefully, almost reverently, and peered inside. A sheet of white tissue paper blocked his view. He pulled it off, and his eyebrows raised in delight at the contents.

"Ve~, a pasta bracelet!" He cheered, taking it out and struggling with the clasp. Li reached over and gently took the bracelet from him, undid the clasp (bought at a Turkish store for some unspecified but apparently large amount of "euros"), and then redid it after wrapping the wire around Italy's wrist. The northern half of Italy admired the present with a huge smile on his face, and Li sighed in relief that he liked it. After remembering that he liked pasta, she'd asked Hungary to get her as much white and red wire as possible, preferably with a little green and gray as well. Several hours of soft cursing and a new appreciation for Turkey later (he had given the gift of pliers, which made the whole thing _much_ easier) had resulted in a fairly accurate wire rendition of pasta, complete with a fork twirled in to connect the charm to a braided strand of white, red, and green wire. Those colors were, according to Hungary, the colors of the Italian flag.

"Woah, that looks kinda real," Romano commented, leaning close so he could get a better look. "When'd you have time to make that?"

"On the way here from Ankara, most of last night," Li admitted sheepishly. "I didn't sleep very much…or at all…it depends on whether seeing Greece being carried on a bed of cats was a dream or not. But I'm pretty sure it was a dream, because cats back home don't ordinarily behave like that."

"I wouldn't be so sure…" Hungary muttered from her spot next to Li. Li turned and frowned at her, but Hungary avoided her gaze entirely and began to play with the tablecloth.

"Seborga! Get my present from Li too!" Romano called to the Micronation. "I wanna see what she made me!"

"And Romano chooses Li's present as well!" Prussia had procured a microphone from somewhere—no one knew where—and had added a clip-on bowtie to his outfit. He now looked like nothing less than a game show host. Just how bored was he?

Dutifully, Seborga ran into the house and brought out the present. Why was he doing all this fetching, you ask? The Italies were bribing him with pasta.

Romano tore into his present quickly, and pulled out a bracelet similar to Italy's, but with one difference: a bunch of red wire had been wound into a somewhat loose ball, and a piece of green wire attached it to a braid of wire colored similarly to Italy's. "A tomato bracelet!" He exclaimed, grinning like a child who has just been told Christmas will come early.

Li smiled hesitantly, hoping that meant he liked it. It certainly seemed like he did, but he could just be pretending so she'd feel better. He'd said Belgium's present was wonderful, even though it was fairly obvious she wasn't the best at knitting. They did have knitting in this world, right?

"Woah, tomato bracelet!" Spain leaned over to get a better look. "That's so cool, Romano! Did she really give you something like that? Wow…"

"Fuck off, tomato bastard," Romano snapped, snatching the bracelet away. "Hey, Li! Help me get this on my wrist, will you?" He held his left arm out to Li, bracelet clutched firmly in his hand. Li took it, undid the clasp, and redid it around Romano's wrist as quickly as possible.

"Okay, whose present next?" Seborga asked his housemates. "Italy, it's your turn."

"Mmm…how about Austria's?"

* * *

Yue had yet to return. "She couldn't have at least told us how long she'd be gone?" Wulong grumbled, flicking a small rock at Huo's cheek. It hit, and the Avatar jumped in surprise before realizing it was just Wulong and settling back down. "How long is the moon going to be in the sky tonight anyways?"

"Is that what she's doing?" Huo asked, rubbing his cheek where the rock had hit. "Well, I'm sure it's really important she does it…I mean, the moon causes the tides, and without the tides the whole world would be screwed up. Some ships would be stranded on dry land, others would be stuck in the ocean, creatures who depend on the tides for food would starve, and the creatures that eat them would starve too..." He looked up at Wulong and Ru, who were looking at him in shock. "What?"

"Did Huo just say something…smart?" Wulong blinked.

"We may be hearing things," Ru suggested. "It's possible. Because Huo wouldn't…he can't…" She trailed off, staring at Huo.

"There's no way Huo can say smart things," Wulong agreed. Ru nodded. Neither of them looked away from Huo.

"I can be smarts sometimes toooo!" Huo wailed childishly. He crossed his arms and pouted. "Why're you being so meeeean?"

"See? It's over," Wulong observed with no small amount of relief in her voice. "I knew he couldn't possibly sound smart. It's not Huo-ish to sound smart. Because Huo is _not_ smart."

"There's no sun!" Huo gaped up at the sky. Wulong smacked her forehead with a palm. Of course he would just now realize that, despite both her and Ru having commented on the lack of any visible light source several times earlier. Ru had more self-control than Wulong, but after over a day of constant exposure to the Avatar, even she was stretched thin. One of Ru's hands was twitching in a decidedly threatening manner, but she was thankfully preventing herself from pulling out a knife.

"Please let Yue get back soon…" Wulong groaned. It was hard enough being stuck in the middle of a forest without any other living thing in sight. Having a person she disliked (though enjoyed laughing at) and a person she feared (and immensely respected, of course) stuck there with her made things even worse. For spirits' sake, Wulong was a _forest_! A stoning forest! She was used to feeling every life that was inside her bounds, every creature and plant. But here, she couldn't sense anything, nothing at all. And it was so frustrating! Like being blind…no, that wasn't the best way to put it. More like being in absolute darkness, unable to see even a hand before her face, missing what would be obvious if she could still "see." Every other sense worked perfectly, but without that "sight" she just felt…off.

There was a sharp crack overhead as a branch broke. Wulong tensed: in the moment it took her to do that, Huo was on his feet and in a combat stance, and Ru had two daggers out—one in each hand—and looked like she would kill the next thing she saw, if she judged it to be a threat.

A mass of brown fur, with a few subtle variations in color across its hide, hit the ground. It paused for a moment, not making any motions—Ru followed its example and remained perfectly still. Huo looked between Ru and the creature wildly, trying to tell if Ru was going to make a move. Wulong did her best to remain unnoticed and out of the way: despite being a spirit herself, she was one of the lowest on the rung, a simple guardian spirit of a forest, and there were more things in the Spirit World than she could count that were strong enough to squash her like a fly. Things that this creature might number amongst.

The tense moment stretched on, and Wulong started to worry. Someone might snap and attack at any second, when it was starting to seem to her that they might be able to get out of this without a fight. "Ru…" she tried to speak as softly as she could, but the creature jerked in her direction. Wulong flinched back—and Ru, of all things, _relaxed_.

"Oh," she sighed, "just you."

"Ru? What?" Wulong panicked, eyes darting from Ru to the creature frantically. "Mind telling me what you're doing?" She should have known not to trust a Firebender, that thing was gonna pounce any second, it would eat her and there was nothing she could do about it, oh spirits, oh spirits, oh dear spirits she did _not_ wanna die! Not like this!

"Oh hey!" Huo grinned, relaxing as well. "That's who it is, huh? Awesome! I did not know you could travel through the Spirit World too. You'll have to tell us about it later. Or…well, now would work too, I guess, since Yue's not back yet."

"You two?" Wulong scrabbled backwards, away from the creature and two insane humans. "Would someone care to tell me what's going on?"

The creature slowly turned towards Wulong, a lump on the side of its body—likely the head—finally facing the forest spirit. Wulong gulped as it started to straighten up, a fold in its figure that might be a large brow raising to reveal…

A human face.

"Hi!" The girl in the huge fur cloak grinned at Wulong. "I'm Ying Niao, better known as the Wandering Spirit! You're…Wulong, spirit of Wulong Forest? I can tell because Li said you have fluffy ears, and man, those things are fluffy!"

"Huh?" Had Wulong been able to see her face at that moment, and had the situation not been enough to temporarily shut off her brain, she would have laughed so hard her ribs might have been in danger of breaking. Sadly, she could not see her face at that moment, although Ru and Huo could. Ru was giving no indication she found it entertaining, but Huo was bent over laughing.

"I assume you're here because of Li?" Ru asked abruptly. Ying pushed her cloak's hood back, revealing long black hair tied back into a ponytail. From the ponytail, it fanned out in all directions, the result of being densely curled.

"Huh? No, what happened to Li?" Ying ran a hand back along her hair, and yawned. The front of her cloak parted just enough to give Wulong a glimpse of black pants and a black shirt before Ying shifted her stance and her cloak's edges overlapped. "I was just following you guys. You didn't find me earlier, which was sort of a disappointment, so I figured I'd say hi now."

"You don't know?" Wulong had regained her voice, and was making up for her scare by being overly aggressive. "Where've you been, under a rock?"

"Well, the entrance to the realm I was in can be found under a rock, so…technically, yeah!" Ying grinned for a moment, but it faded when she saw the solemn looks on Ru and Huo's faces. "Um…guys? What exactly happened to Li?" Neither of them answered, so she turned to Wulong. "What happened?"

"Li…Li is…" Wulong looked away. "She's…been hurt. Real bad. Yue was able to save her life, but this whole mess went down with her soul, and now her soul is in a different mortal world while her body's healing in the Spirit Oasis. We're not sure who did this, but we're trying to find them before Li's soul has lived in this other mortal realm for a year. That's when she'll…" the forest spirit swallowed hard, definitely not out of concern, and continued. "If we can find this world before Li's lived a year there, we can to where she is so we can save her. But we haven't had much luck so far. I guess we shouldn't expect too much after two days, though." Her eyes started to water—clearly she had gotten something in them. Because she would _never_ cry at the thought of not being able to see Li again. Nope.

"Oh. I see," Ying paused. Tone soft, she asked, "Two days?"

"Yeah," Wulong faked a laugh, voice rough. "Two days. Several realms here have been real busy talking about it. But of course, you were under a rock. You couldn't have known." Her voice had grown sarcastic, and her tone made it clear she didn't think much of Ying for not hearing about something like that happening.

"Why would any of the spirits care?" Ying frowned. "Li's just a human. Humans die all the time. Yeah, she's the Fire Lord, but there are thousands of rulers in all the mortal realms. One of them dying has never caused much of a stir before."

"Li's has," Wulong sighed. "Her soul was stolen, and a powerful spirit was involved. Yue's not saying anything, but I'm pretty sure a spirit as important as her wouldn't have intervened in Li's death without someone even more powerful telling her to."

"Excuse me?" Ru spoke, a scowl forming on her face. "This is the first I'm hearing of that."

"Really?" Wulong rolled her eyes. "I could have sworn I told you." Ru's scowl deepened. "Whatever, you know now. Anyways, that's what's been going on. Yue's supposed to come back and help us start searching again soon, and until then, we're staying put so she can find us more quickly."

Ying looked down, face unreadable. Wulong felt a twinge of guilt for having been so mean, but it passed. She was pressed for time and being forced to wait. It was understandable, wasn't it? Wasn't it?

Ru walked over to a root and sat down. "Ying," she began slowly, "you're the Spirit of Wanderers, right?"

"This is the first I've heard about her being a spirit…" Huo muttered.

"Me too, but I'm not wasting time thinking about it," Ru snapped. "If she's a spirit, I won't question that fact, I'll see how we can use it to find Li. Don't you want to find her, too? Or are you just here because you feel guilty about making her so upset she ran out of the house in the first place?" Huo fell silent at that, and walked a few yards away to sit down. He put his head in his hands, but didn't answer. Ru turned her attention back to Ying, clearly waiting for an answer to her question.

"I'm the Spirit of Wanderers, yeah," Ying muttered. "It's why I wander around. I know most of the Spirit World pretty well, and a lot about most of the mortal realms too. I've annoyed or befriended a bunch of people all over."

"Then…" a fire began to gleam in Ru's eyes, "do you think you could bring a message to someone for me?"

* * *

**Me: It's not a literal fire. Just a metaphorical one. If you had a real fire in your eyes, you'd be in excruciating pain and possibly dying. Definitely blind.**

**Li: You wrote that, and you feel the need to say that? Plus, the mental image is sort of scary. It makes Ru look like a demon...oh dear flame we will never speak of this again.**

**Me: One more note first. I have no idea what Belgium's knitting skills are like, so I decided to go for humor and make them crappy. Who knows, they could actually be pretty good. But I can't recall anything from the Hetalia Wiki (one of my Bibles) about Belgium and knitting, so yay for improvisation! :D**

**Li: Please let me kill her...**

**Me: Like I'll write you killing me. ^_^**

**Li: AAAARGH!**


	29. Nights

**Me: ...okay. So.**

**Li: This is important. You should listen to her.**

**Me: I...need a break.**

**Li: And thus I will get one too.**

**Me: Life is complicated, and I've been busy lately, and...well, my brain is kind of not functioning properly. Actually, a better way to put it would be this:**

**Brain: WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE *death***

**Me: So, yeah. For the rest of July, there will be no more Fire Lily chapters. I need some time to go over my plans for future chapters, work on other stories, and get stuff done that has no relation whatsoever to my writing. Sorry all, but that's just how life's working for me at this point. :/**

**Li: I'm good with this plan, because I have a couple weeks free. Karen may not own Avatar or Hetalia, but she does own me, and her not posting means I get time off. Enjoy this angsty little chapter that she is giving you because she wrote it and it's next on the list. Even though it's totally an invasion of my privacy.**

**Me: You're a fictional character. You don't _have_ any privacy!**

**Li: But I'm a human being!**

**Me: Created for a story, under my complete control...**

**Li: Monster...**

**Me: I know. ^_^**

* * *

It was night. Li was lying on a bunk in a train car, on her way to Ukraine after spending two days with Hungary at her house. She'd loved Budapest—it was beautiful in the blossoming spring, if windy. The last of the winter grayness was fading away, and flowers were starting to spring up in all their wonderful colors.

But that was behind her now—as well as the shopping Hungary had insisted they do to make sure Li was prepared for early spring in Ukraine. Li now owned three thickly-padded coats that would serve to keep her from freezing to death. She was, according to Austria, supposed to stay with Ukraine for the day, sleep at her house, and catch a train with her to her sister Belarus's house early the next morning. While Li wondered if Austria realized that she wasn't the earliest riser in the world, she was eager to meet Ukraine and Belarus, Hungary said Ukraine was a sweetheart, if something of a crybaby, and that she thought Li would like her.

Hungary was sleeping in the bunk below Li, in fact, breathing softly in her sleep. Li listened to her, semi-consciously trying to match her own breaths to her friend's. Why, she wasn't sure. It just made her feel better, thinking that there was this small connection between her and someone else.

Li hated nights here. She didn't hate much else…why would she? Everyone—well, most of the people here—were being so kind to her, when they really had no reason to other than the goodness of their hearts. Nothing obligated the Nations to give her shelter, food, clothes: they could have just taken her to a hospital and forgotten about her, left her to fend for herself. But they hadn't. They'd instead decided to help her, asked her to stay with them while Austria's house was being repaired, allowed her to see their beautiful world. For all of that, Li was eternally grateful. During the day.

But at night, things were different. At night, she couldn't distract herself from her situation, and it hit her with all the force it had on her fourth day here. The visit to the North Pole in her dream had only made nights worse. She would remember that she was in a completely different world, with no other way to support herself than to rely on the Nations. Oh, that hurt. All her life, Ru and Li's family and pretty much everyone Li knew had tried to get her to be strong enough to survive on her own—but here, she couldn't. Here, she didn't know how to.

Then her mind would turn to her friends. Li missed them, and not being able to ask Jia for advice or be teased by Mao (with Xing's help) had somehow created a deep ache in Li's heart that refused to go away. She could ignore it, pretend it wasn't there, but the absence of her friends was an ever-present fact. Just earlier that day, while shopping, Li had instinctively turned around to ask Kai what she thought of a pair of boots Hungary had suggested for her. Hungary didn't press for answers when Li asked if she could find a different pair, seeming to sense Li was feeling some sort of homesickness, but the incident had clearly stayed in the fore of her mind for the rest of the day. It made every interaction following it, every conversation, seem strained and awkward to Li.

Even Si. Li even missed Si. She'd never thought she would, but she did. He terrified her, yes, with his deadly skills and imposing figure, but he was another presence Li was used to that was now absent. Everyone kept trying to tell her that he wasn't actually that scary—ha. Did they not remember, on the escape from Ba Sing Se immediately following the Tóngyī Revolution, how Si had single-handedly taken out a group of soldiers scouring the Crystal Catacombs? All they'd heard was half a minute of screaming, a few clangs, and a plea for mercy that was abruptly cut off. Then Si, covered in blood but without a scratch of his own, sauntered around a corner and said the coast was clear. Fearing him was not only justified, it was smart.

And yet, Ru was dating him.

Yes, dating. Li shuddered instinctively at the thought. She would never have thought of Ru as the dating type—Ru's sworn duty was to protect her, at all costs. Maybe dating Si so he would stick around and help protect Li was a happy side effect of their relationship, but on Ru's part only. Li would be perfectly okay with staying far, far away from Si. It was a stupid paranoia, but Li lived in fear that one day she would anger Si—and suffer his wrath. He'd joked about it with everyone else…or at least Li hoped he was joking. It was hard to tell, with him.

Thoughts of Si brought Hong, Huo's younger brother, to mind. Hong was a Dai Li trainee, or at least, he was before the Tóngyī Revolution. Many people in Ba Sing Se still distrusted their cultural police force after their defection to the Fire Nation's side at the end of the War, despite huge reforms instigated by both the Earth King and Avatar Aang. As a result, one of the first decrees from the Tóngyī ShÌjiè after gaining power, after declaring all royal and noble titles void and seizing the wealth of the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation noble families, had been the dissolution of the Dai Li organization. Like the surviving nobles and royal cousins, many former Dai Li agents had been forced to go underground to avoid persecution by the new regime.

Li smiled to herself, thinking of Hong. He acted like a child most of the time, pouting when he didn't get his way and easily distracted by "pretties." Hong was over two yards tall, and enjoyed using the broad rim of his Dai Li uniform's hat to cover his face and appear more imposing, but the illusion was always broken when he grinned and swept someone up in a fierce, back-breaking hug. His friends suspected he used childish wording on purpose, to seem like a dumb, overgrown kid, so that their enemies would underestimate him in a fight. That was a mistake nobody made twice: Hong was demonically clever when it came to a battle, using his (admittedly limited) ability to discern his surroundings by sensing the vibrations in the earth to his advantage. A tactic that had eventually emerged amongst their group was to use their various Bending and talents to make the site of a confrontation as dark as possible, and then allow Hong to pick off their enemies one by one. Sadly, that only worked when they were in a building or cave, but they'd had some success as well with using it during a new moon, or if it was a cloudy night.

Moon…night…Li hated nights here.

And Liandao…Li thought that, besides Ru, she missed Liandao the most. The two of them were from Nations whose elements were opposite, yet whose lifestyles were eerily similar. Liandao's native home, the Southern Water Tribe, was filled with strong fighters, a result of needing every hand available to survive in the harsh landscape—or rather, as Liandao preferred to call it, icescape—of the South Pole. Similar to the warrior mentality prevalent in the Southern Water Tribe, the Fire Nation required its children to learn how to be soldiers. Opposite elements, yet similar cultures: Li found the thought fascinating.

And of course, there was also Dao Jia, Liandao's friend and charge. She was the Tribal Princess of the Northern Water Tribe, sister to its Chief and wife of one of its best hunters. Jia was also pregnant. It wasn't the best condition for being on the run—but nobody had known at first, and there hadn't been much choice after finding out. They were all hunted, even Jia, and even if the Tóngyī had mercy on her and allowed her baby to live, she would still have to die after giving birth. And what of her baby? A boy would be an heir of the Northern Water Tribe's Chief: a girl could be married to someone under the Tóngyī's control, at least, and serve as a puppet ruler. It was a source of worry for everyone in Team Avatar, especially their Healer Guang Ming, who had taken to hovering around Jia whenever she could, worried about the Princess and her baby.

Ming…another pang in Li's chest. They weren't the closest friends of the group, not by far, but they were still _good_ friends. Guang Ming was one of the sweetest people Li knew, but had the strongest heart of all. It wasn't easy, after all, to Heal people who were in pain, to cut them open so she could fix whatever was wrong inside of them. Lots of the people Ming had Healed weren't happy about the pain, or were strong warriors made helpless by injury, and they took their discomfort and frustration out on their Healer. Li couldn't see how Ming did it, kept on being so kind and gentle with her patients when they threw things at her, insulted her honor and family. After all of that, not to mention the stress of hurrying to save lives so that she could move on to the next patient, Li would have snapped and killed someone. Healing was no profession for the weak.

Weak…was Li weak? She felt weak. Everyone else in Team Avatar seemed so much stronger than her, so much better at their respective Bending arts…well, except for the non-Bender Yi and Earth Princess Mao. Yi was a skilled swordsman, it was true, but his skills had given him an ego larger than a Komodo Rhino. He even dismissed Bending's advantages entirely, despite the repeated incidents where he had been defeated by a Bender. His dismissals had even managed to antagonize Benders in the past, and he'd even cost them a potential ally once. Despite his shortcomings, he was a loyal guard and friend, willing to throw himself into some of the most dangerous situations they found to protect his friends.

And, well…his older brother Wen was attractive. _Really_ attractive. That was a huge part of why Li had kept him around.

Then Mao…Li actually liked Mao. They were fellow princesses, for one thing, but that wasn't the only reason Li liked her. Mao had a sense of humor like few others, and Li appreciated it greatly. Together, along with their friend Zi You, they had an ongoing joke about how they would take over the world. Since Li was technically now the ruler of the Fire Nation, and Mao was technically the Earth Queen, and between them they would control about two-thirds of all the land in their world, their plans were mostly "beat the Tóngyī, get Jia to join us, then lie back and laugh and at the confused expressions on everyone's faces." Jia's devious political mind would almost definitely ensure their rule came about quickly after the Tóngyī's demise, and if the whole thing was unnecessary, well, it made for some good laughs. And apparently Si was scared of what would happen if they stopped joking about it and actually _did_ take over the world. That made Li extremely happy. It wasn't like Si was easy to scare.

You…another friend, another ache, and another laugh because of her friend's name. Zi You was an unpredictable hurricane, a typhoon of chaos that destroyed or aided at random. She was not oblivious to the humor available from her name, and enjoyed pretending that every time the word "you" was spoken she believed the speaker was talking to her. You's antics had entertained them without using her name as fodder, too: she had numerous stories of people and places she knew and had been to, many wild and quite possibly exaggerated. But hearing about how You had, supposedly, saved a village from insanity due to a hallucinogenic substance derived from cactus juice contaminating their water supply was good for _so_ many jokes. Li was also fairly certain there were some lasting side-effects from the cactus juice You had accidentally drank during the story, because the Airbender certainly acted like there had been. It was impossible to know what she would do next, or if it would destroy anything vaguely important. Not that You couldn't be responsible when it was necessary…it was more like she didn't realize being responsible when it wasn't necessary could be important too—as well as easier for the people she was with.

Why did Li have to miss them so much? How was it that in the space of a few months, they had wormed their ways into her heart? She tried to imagine a future in her world where they won, and Li never saw any of the friends she had made ever again. It wouldn't form in her mind. Li simply couldn't see life without Xing and Mao and You to make jokes, Hong to stand creepily behind someone and make them feel uncomfortable, Kai and Zhu to make out in a corner and make Li (and almost everyone else) feel uncomfortable, Liandao to joke with Jia about the baby actually being Liandao's, Huo to be…well…Huo.

Huo. What _was_ Huo? He was the Avatar, a fellow Firebending student, Li supposed he was a friend…but honestly, she just didn't _get_ him. He was unpredictable, not like You (thank the spirits), but in his own, special, Huo way. Normally he acted silly, immature, like a court jester more than the spirit of the world. But at times…he could be…

Li could barely believe it, but Huo _could_ be serious, even wise. You wouldn't guess it from his usual behavior, but behind Huo's childish actions and addiction to tea was a smart, intuitive, cautious mind. Huo planned out his life carefully, making important decisions only once he knew all the facts and had considered all possible outcomes. That was completely contradictory to the impression one first got of Huo, who did the strangest and funniest things whenever he felt like it. It had taken Li over four years to see what he was really like—and now that she knew, she wondered how she could have missed it.

Well, it had been hard to see. At first, Li only knew Huo as her fellow Firebending student, that one guy who had to do basic techniques all day when he was already sixteen. That he was the Avatar, and had only just found that out, was no excuse to Li—or Ru. Both agreed that the Avatar should be able to master the elements quickly, and have an almost instinctive grasp of all the bending arts. After four years, Huo had only just reached the same level as Li. And Li was not exactly going to master Firebending in a few months.

Which was more than a little frustrating. Prior to the Tóngyī Revolution, Li's days had begun at sunrise with two hours of Firebending training. Then breakfast with her little brother, Ru, Ru's younger brother Yueliang, and Kai, helping Kuzon and Yueliang get to the Royal Fire Academy for Boys after playing longer than they should have, and off to the Advanced Royal Fire Academy for six hours of nonstop classes, bringing a simple, light lunch with her to eat during class. Once that was done, she would pick up Kuzon and take him to Master Qien's house. Master Qien insisted on teaching her pupils at her home, and had several assistants (including Ru) to help her train young Firebenders. Around sunset, the trainees were allowed to go home and relax. Usually Li would use the chance to have dinner with Kuzon, while Kai went off for a while and enjoyed herself at some local hangout for privileged teenagers.

Despite all of her hard work, Li was still nowhere near mastering Firebending. She was better than most other Firebenders: few were ever as skilled as she was at the age of eighteen. Many never reached the level of Master at all: the discipline and hours of work involved scared some away from the possibility, and others were simply not skilled or powerful enough. Li's countless hours of training, not to mention the various points of the day where she found a lull and used the chance to practice her basic control techniques, had only managed to bring her to the level of "highly skilled." Compared to Ru, who had mastered Firebending at fifteen through near-constant training in her earliest years and an aptitude for Firebending that was unheard of since the prodigy Princess Azula…Li was nothing.

Li clenched her fist on the blanket she was lying under, unconsciously gritting her teeth. Her mind was turning to Ru, and she would have given anything to avoid the pain she knew was coming. It was the greatest ache in her heart, the largest hole in her heart. The absence of Ru in her life.

She had never been without Ru for more than a few days! Admittedly, in the time immediately after the Tóngyī Revolution, there had been a period of maybe a week where it was just Li and Huo, trying to figure out what had happened and if their loved ones were safe. The two of them had gone back into Ba Sing Se, which they had fled only hours prior, to learn what was going on. But Ru had immediately known where to look for Li—she had explained later that Li "doesn't do safe very well." That was probably true, but at the time Li had just recently learned that Kuzon was dead, and hadn't been in the mood to take anything well. Her ensuing rant hadn't helped her standing with the others in Team Avatar.

Still. Ru was always there. _Always_. Li didn't know how she was functioning without Ru. It was like a limb was missing, one that was quiet and intimidating and prevented Li's head from getting too big by making aside comments about her failings. A limb Li could never have imagined life without.

She was coping, of course. Ru had drilled it into Li's head over the years that there might come a time when Ru could not protect her, and Li would have to fend for herself. The normally quiet and imposing woman had spoken very loudly on the subject, bordering on paranoia. Most of the scenarios she presented to Li seemed more than a little unlikely, and always more morbid than Li liked to think about. However, understanding that going along with Ru's planning for those scenarios would help to ease her bodyguard's mind, Li had dutifully plotted out courses of action for everything the two could think of.

They would never have dreamed of this, though. What person in their right mind would have? Winding up in another world—even as Li lay in a bed made of strange materials, on a machine her own people could not rival, with the personification of a Nation lying in the bunk below her, the Fire Lord found the very idea preposterous. Things like this simply didn't happen: there was no way this was real. For all she knew, everything that had happened to her in the past—was it nearly three weeks now? Yes, it was, wasn't it? Everything in the past three weeks, it could all be merely a dream, a bizarre hallucination of some sort.

But…Li thought this was just a little too realistic to be a dream or hallucination. Dreams always had a slightly different feel to them—there was no other word but "off" to describe it. And you always woke up from a dream. They never took this long, either, not exactly. Li could remember almost everything she had done since coming here, and that didn't happen in a dream. Time was inconstant in sleep: you could skip from night to afternoon in the blink of an eye, yet think it perfectly normal and rational, because it was a dream, and you never questioned things in a dream. Or at least, Li didn't. She'd heard of people who had realized they were dreaming while in a dream, and had managed to control the dream itself to shape things into whatever way they wished, but Li had never experienced it.

So, she felt reasonably certain that this was not a dream. And really, didn't dreams also have inconsistencies, parts that didn't line up with the real world? While the Nations and their advanced technology might have been classified as such, how could Li have thought up such diverse and amazing characters for her dream in the first place? What would explain the strange animals, co-existing alongside a few species that Li recognized so far? How could she account for the consistencies that held this world bound an inescapable logic so similar to her own, the small details that one would not find so clear in dream?

No, this was no dream. Li was certain of that.

So then what? She was living out a musician's tale, a bad play! Li knew the stereotypes for such a tale: Tragic Heroine finds herself in a New World, and meets a group of Interesting People. The Tragic Heroine soon finds her True Love in this New World, but due to a past love or an unhappy but necessary engagement, the two Cannot Be. Villains enter, attempting to keep the Lovers from being together, but finally the Tragic Heroine is rescued from her unhappy life by the True Love, and they live happily ever after.

As if that would ever happen in real life.

Li knew she was by no means a Tragic Heroine: for starters, the actresses in a play going along those lines always seemed to have larger breasts than Li. And everything always revolved around the Tragic Heroine. Life wasn't like that: life did not all revolve around one single person. One person could have more power, wealth, prestige, etc, than others, but others would not necessarily find that one person to be the center of their world. People were complex things, and you couldn't know everything simply with a glance. A chance encounter could change the course of a person's day, a single mistake could ruin a mood, an accidental twist could shape history. But life never—_never_—focused all on one person, unless you _were_ that person.

It was a simple fact to Li that everyone's lives revolved around them. How could they not? They were the only ones who could understand themselves completely, who could know everything they had gone through. Others could come very close indeed to knowing a person, but they could never view the world exactly as someone else did. So Li did her best to make her life about others, to keep from focusing on herself too much and being selfish. Her friends seemed to do so without even realizing it. Ming and Jia in particular managed to focus themselves on the hurts and cares of others without a thought of their own desires. And Li told herself that she had to do her best to match them in deed and kindness, and made herself toil for hours on end to aid others.

She fought against the Tóngyī ShÌjiè for her people, not herself, Li tried to believe. Her own claim to the throne meant nothing to her, save that she could try to be a ruler deserving of such a proud and loyal nation as the Fire Nation. When she gave the last bit of her food to orphans in the street, she told her conscience that they deserved it more, not that she felt a Princess shouldn't have to eat such slop as that. Most of the time, Li was able to believe herself.

But then, at night, when it was just Li and her thoughts, she would realize how truly horrible she was. She resented that she had to live as a fugitive, when she should rightfully be in a palace amongst gold and fine gems, eating fine delicacies—not stale bread. Li despised pretending to be a common civilian, bowing her head in obedience to the Tóngyī ShÌjiè and praying to the spirits that nobody recognized her face. Nobody bowed when she walked past, not anymore, and Li felt insulted that the peasants she traveled amongst could not at least recognize that they were in the presence of one of their betters. They were rough, common, uncouth, where Li was one of their rulers, someone born with the divine, spirit-given _right_ to sit on a throne and control their lives.

A tiny voice in Li's head would always comment on how selfish and petty she was, thinking of such things when so much was at stake. So what if she no longer got the respect she felt was her due? How was anyone to know it was a Princess standing before them, and not some mere peasant, with dirty clothing and unwashed skin? Could she really expect to rule so great a nation as the Fire Nation if she could not overcome these minor difficulties and focus on what was truly important—liberating her people from the Tóngyī ShÌjiè?

The Fire Nation deserved better, Li would always conclude. All it had for a ruler now was a girl who could barely see past the insult inherent in her current status, not someone who could ignore her condition and think instead of her people. If Li ever met the personification of the Fire Nation…well, she wasn't sure what she would do. Yes, she did love her nation and its people, but did she love it enough? It was third on a list of things Li would die for, the second thing being Kuzon and the first being Ru. Her nation only barely trumped number four, her friends, because it was Li's duty to keep her nation safe. Keeping Kuzon safe had been both a duty and a choice, the duty of a Princess to her future ruler and the choice of a sister for her brother. But Ru…dying for Ru was purely a selfish wish, the vice Li refused to give up. So what if Ru was supposed to be the one protecting Li? That didn't matter to Li, so long as Ru, the only thing she could count on in this life, was safe.

In this life…that was a thought that scared Li. Because there was the inescapable truth that Li denied as best she could: she should have died from her wounds at the North Pole. Meiko had cut her throat open and drained almost all of the blood from Li's body to use in healing Ru, Li's last demand that the Waterbender had mockingly granted. Remembering her dream of being trapped in an immobile body, unable to move or speak or do anything to let her friends know she was alive, Li shivered. Ru's cries of pain haunted her ears, echoes of memory that made nights all the harder to bear.

Then Huo's proclamation that Li was still alive, Ru's mad dash to the Spirit Oasis, Yue's appearance—was any of it real? Was any of it true?

The true horror of night began to creep around Li, enveloping her in a shadowy, frightening thought.

_ What if she was dead?_

But that couldn't be—Li felt alive! She felt more alive than she ever had, here, in this world, traveling to visit the Nations and learning about this wonderful, beautiful world of theirs. How could she be dead when she was feeling more intensely than she had since Kuzon's death? Sages and priests and even Avatars spoke of the Land of the Dead, where souls went after their body's death, to reside forevermore in happiness. Beyond that bare description, not much else was known of the Land of the Dead. Tales abounded, there were of course clichéd stories about someone being rescued from the Land of the Dead by a grieving lover or relative, but those were only fiction. General Iroh, the Dragon of the West, had ventured into the Spirit World following his son's death, but he had failed to find the entrance to the Land, and returned with nothing to show.

And wouldn't the Lands of the Dead be…well…happier to live in? Unless a spirit had been evil, and deserved punishment, it was a generally accepted fact that the dead were happy, were "in a better place." Li didn't think she had been too corrupt in her life, not corrupt enough to warrant punishment, so unless everybody was wrong, she didn't think she would be so unhappy here if this place really was the Land of the Dead.

But at night, she wasn't so sure.

Still. Even in punishment, wouldn't the unhappiness be more constant? If Li was paying the price for her sins, wouldn't there be no brief moments of happiness, of forgetfulness in the daytime? Shouldn't a damned soul be in constant misery, not allowed to laugh and smile and make new, if temporary, friends here? So it was even more unlikely that this was punishment.

Hungary shifted in her sleep, and gave a low groan. Li's train of thought was derailed, and she debated just climbing down from the bunk to find a glass of water or something. But even though she didn't feel too tired, she was afraid that moving would simply wake her up more, make it harder to sleep, so she stayed put.

The Nations. They weren't a bad bunch, really. Several, like Russia and a tall blond nation Li remembered someone describing as Nordic, could be scary, but Li was almost sure they weren't capable of being evil. How could a Nation be evil? It could have evil people as a part of it, could commit atrocities that shocked the world, but Li didn't think a Nation could ever be truly evil. Maybe it was just her way of justifying her own nation's actions. Her beloved Fire Nation had done horrible things, slaughtered the Air Nomads, driven the Southern Water Tribe to the brink of extinction. But she could never see her nation as being evil—she loved it too much. Li would always justify anything her nation did, refusing to consider the notion that it could be evil. Because that would mean that everything that was Fire Nation was evil, and how could that be?

Yes, how could that be? How could fire lilies, blooming in the summer, be evil? How could the land be evil? How could the animals that wandered the remaining forests and the plains be evil? How could newborn infants, who knew nothing of the world and could not fend for themselves, be evil?

Yet the Tóngyī ShÌjiè, despite preaching tolerance and equality for all, seemed to believe the Fire Nation was evil. The Tóngyī was primarily made up of Earth Kingdom citizens, farmers and peasants who had suffered under the rule of their rightful masters. Scars still remained upon the earth from battles a century and a half and more ago, and the Earth Kingdom as a whole had yet to completely forgive the Fire Nation for its actions. And now the Fire Nation languished under harsh masters, chafing at their hypocritical rule, waiting for the chance to rise up and overthrow the pretenders to its throne.

It occurred to Li that, if the nations of her world were indeed personified, a fitting scenario to match the situation would be the Earth Kingdom with a foot on the back of Li's beloved Fire Nation. But no, the Earth Kingdom suffered as well, despite the Fire Nation bearing the brunt of the Tóngyī's wrath.

Maybe the Tóngyī ShÌjiè had been personified as well? It called itself the One World, the ultimate nation that would rule forever. How would that work, though, when its only claim was land already named? Could an organization be personified? Li would have to ask Hungary in the morning. Thinking of a personification for the Tóngyī ShÌjiè made Li feel very, very vulnerable indeed. Her mind presented the image of the personification of the Tóngyī stepping on the vague form of the Fire Nation, forcing her proud country to the ground, making it grovel and beg for forgiveness for acts it had long ago atoned for. The past was the past, could people not see that? Her nation had made its atonements, and now it owed others nothing, it was free of any obligation for rebuilding the world. They had paid for the building of Republic City, a metropolis that allowed for the people of the Four Nations to mingle and interact and exchange knowledge and ideas. Couldn't they stop apologizing and start thinking of themselves, how they could be strong once more?

Not that Li doubted the Fire Nation had once needed to make amends to its fellow nations. Their world had been broken and chaotic, needing something or someone to bring about peace. Fire Lord Zuko, Li's ancestor, and his good friend Avatar Aang, once the last Airbender, had worked together for all of their lives to repair the world. Zuko's ascension to the throne at merely sixteen had certainly been a surprise—nobody had expected one so young to be a competent ruler. But he'd had the benefit of his uncle's wisdom, of the Avatar's advice and influence, of the fact that he had declared the War over and that the Fire Nation would try to undo the damage it had caused.

There were things he had done that Li frowned to think of, though. Immediately after the War was declared over, the Earth Kingdom had made it known, in no unclear terms, that it wanted the land of the Fire Nation Colonies back. Fire Lord Zuko had wanted to agree, until the Governor of the Colonies sent him a letter detailing just how bad of an idea that was. The original residents of much of the land the Colonies took up were long dead, and many families had lived there for a hundred years at that time. None of them liked the idea of giving up the farms and shops and town their great-grandparents had built. Residents of the Fire Nation proper viewed Colony settlers as slobs and vagrants, the sort of people who would not be welcome in their glorious Homeland.

So there were peace meetings, and correspondences between Fire Lord Zuko and the Earth King, until it was agreed that some of the less populated areas would be given up and the lands that had been settled fifty years prior would remain a part of the Fire Nation. That had been the best solution to a hard problem: Fire Nation peasants had to be moved, of course, and Earth Kingdom settlers pressed the boundaries of the Colonies to the point where disgruntled commoners almost began the War all over again, but in the end both sides were mostly satisfied.

And Li found herself disappointed in her ancestor and his successors, because they couldn't seem to realize that the Fire Nation had paid its debt years ago. They just kept on apologizing, and rolling over and showing their bellies to shrewd politicians from other nations, and _giving in_ when the Fire Nation needed to stand firm. Her country should be the most powerful, like the fire it was named for, and it was growing weak.

Li had vowed long ago that she would never let her nation get any weaker. The Tongyi might control the Fire Nation now, but she would not let that last longer than she could help it.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Hungary stretched, and blinked her eyes open. The train was starting to slow down, and judging by the scenery outside the window, they were getting close to their stop. She'd slept through the night, very peacefully, without any dreams that she could remember.

Getting out of her bunk, Hungary glanced up at Li's bed. Sunlight from a barely-risen sun was streaming in, illuminating the contents of the room. Li was tangled in her sheets, the pillow kicked halfway down the bunk, her face only just visible. Strands of her hair were visible around her face.

"Li, it's time to get up," Hungary reached out and shook the girl's shoulder. Li's eyes opened slowly, and she looked at Hungary blearily. "Did you sleep well?"

"No," Li replied, eyes shutting again. "Not really."

* * *

**Me: So. Please send in reviews concerning your opinions of my writing, my characters, what I'm doing right, what I'm doing wrong...all that. Only way I can improve is if I get your feedback!**

**Li: Plus I get a cookie for each review!**

**Me: And it'll be a while before the next chapter, so she needs cookies more than anything.**

**Li: So true.**


	30. Mountains

**Me: Corrupted files. Stupid corrupted files. I've lost half of the stuff on my computer, including a chapter of Fire Lily. Fortunately it was still in-progress, so I didn't lose much, but it's still frustrating.**

**Li: Yeah, you losing a chapter of this damping story. Soooo terrible.**

**Me: It occurs to me that you're not the nicest person in the world.**

**Li: Of course I'm not. You haven't made me a saint, have you?**

**Me: When you think about it, technically I'm talking to myself. Isn't that a sign of insanity?**

**Li: What, you need more of them?**

**Me: And technically, **_**I'm**_** the one saying mean things about myself…**

**Li: Get a shrink. Oh, Karen does not own Avatar or Hetalia.**

**Me: So, I'm basically the one behind all the mean stuff you do to me…**

**Li: Boo hoo, you're insane. Like you weren't expecting it.**

**Me: Actually I was, I just didn't think it'd set in so soon…**

**Li: …As I said, get a shrink. Here's a chapter.**

* * *

The country of Ukraine was really amazing—the land, that is, not the personification. Li had yet to meet that Nation. But the view from the train window as it pulled into the capital of Ukraine, Kiev, was extremely beautiful. Hungary had told her a few things about Ukraine, upon Li's insistence, so that Li wouldn't make a stupid assumption that was completely wrong.

Li vaguely remembered someone pointing Ukraine out at Italy's party. She was a pretty woman, with short platinum blonde hair and large breasts. Apparently, the breasts were an expression of how fertile her land was. It made sense, but Li pitied the poor woman. Jia had large breasts too—not as large as Ukraine's, of course, Li wasn't sure there was anybody with breasts larger than Ukraine's—and she suffered from chronic back pains. Being pregnant had only made Jia's back situation worse, too.

Back to Ukraine. Hungary had warned Li that if she saw a burn scar on Ukraine's shoulder, she shouldn't comment on it. It was the result of what Hungary called a "nuclear meltdown" from a place called "Chernobyl." Ukraine still felt bad about it, and any mention made her burst into tears.

And…Ukraine was Russia's elder sister. Just thinking about that made Li wonder. Was Ukraine really as nice as Hungary said she was? Did she have that scary air that Russia possessed? She hadn't looked like she did when Li had seen her at the party, but then, Ukraine was alternately hovering near Russia and running off into the house. It was hard to gauge someone's personality when you were either avoiding the area near them or didn't know where they were.

"I'm taking the next train back to Budapest," Hungary reminded Li. "There'll be just enough time for us to get your things to Ukraine's house before I have to run back here. Belarus is already with her sister, and later in the evening you'll be getting on a plane to Belarus' place. Think you'll be okay without me?"

"Yeah, I should be," Li nodded. Hungary turned away, and Li added, "Thanks."

"Huh?" Hungary looked back at Li, who was blushing slightly. "What for?"

"For…well, for everything," Li shrugged. "For helping me out when you don't have to. For coming with me when you probably have lots of things to do at home."

"Of course I'm helping you," Hungary blinked. "You needed someone to look after you at first, and now I'm just worried."

"Why are you worried?" Li's eyebrows knit in confusion. "I don't see why you should be. I'm just a stranger you're looking after. You don't know a thing about me, or where I'm from." It occurred to Li belatedly that she shouldn't have reminded Hungary of Li's home. Everyone seemed to have forgotten it ever since Li had left Russia's house, and Li was all the happier for it.

"No, I don't know the first thing about you," Hungary agreed. Li waited to see where she was going with this. "I don't know what kind of foods you like, or what music you listen to. I don't know what happened in your past, or what plans you have for your future." She paused. "But I do know that you have absolutely nothing here except for what we give you, and that you must miss your friends terribly. You won't admit it, but whenever you can't decide if you like something you always look over your shoulder, like you're expecting someone to be there. Then, when you see there's nobody there, you look disappointed for a second before your face goes blank again. It was hard to spot at first, but once I caught on…"

"I do?" Li blinked. She hadn't noticed herself doing anything of the sort, but then, if she was she probably would be doing it instinctively. Ru or Kai were always around, hovering near her shoulder or somewhere nearby, and usually all Li had to do was look around and yell a question at them. Usually Kai, if she was clothes shopping. Kai was the sort of person who worried more about how a person's clothing fared than the person themselves, and she had impeccable fashion sense.

"Yes, but I don't think you notice," Hungary shrugged. Her tone softened slightly, and she added, "You must really miss your friends."

Li twisted away, unsure of how to respond. Really, how _could_ she respond, when asked something so obvious? Yes, she missed her friends deeply, so badly that her chest ached to think about it and tears threatened to well up in her eyes. That was why she had been throwing herself into _doing_ stuff these past two weeks—she needed to distract herself from her homesickness, her loneliness.

"I…yeah," Li admitted to Hungary, voice cracking slightly. "Of course I miss them. They're the people who've been helping me stay alive for…for what seems like forever, even though it can't have been more than a few months." There it was, that wetness in her eyes that Li absolutely despised but couldn't do a thing about. "Most of them I didn't know before things got bad, and I don't think I would have become friends with half of them if not for the revolution. But…we _did _become friends, and there _was_ a revolution, and now I don't know where they are." That was only partially true—Li did indeed know where they were, in their world. But she had no idea where that was in relation to here, and that was bad enough for her. "I don't know how to find them, to let them know I'm feeling okay. They're beating themselves up, and I didn't think they would even care this much, but they _do_, and I feel terrible for not realizing sooner."

Hungary didn't answer. She was too busy processing a thought that had sprung up at Li's words. It sounded as if… "Li, you…how do you know what they're feeling right now?" Li looked up in surprise, and opened her mouth. Beating her to the punch, Hungary added, "You're talking about them as if you've spoken to them since arriving here."

Li stiffened at Hungary's words. She almost immediately began to berate herself, wondering how she could have possibly let herself slip up so foolishly. Nobody but her knew about the visit-dreams, with the obvious exception of whatever force was causing them in the first place. Her mind went blank as she tried to think of a way to explain.

Her silence wasn't helping Hungary's suspicions. The kind Nation felt a sliver of doubt reach into her mind—how could she know Li wasn't some sort of threat? Li didn't seem like a threat, not to Hungary at least; she seemed like a lost and confused young woman who didn't know what to do. But everyone's ready acceptance of her…well, all right, not ready acceptance. Last she had heard, Austria and Germany were tearing through all the records they could find, trying to learn of any possible mentions of the Fire Nation that Li claimed to be from. So far, they had nothing. Other Nations were probably conducting similar quests, and just as likely getting nothing. That, or they were keeping the information to themselves.

It was taking a long time for Li to reply, so Hungary decided to let it go. She wasn't going to forget it, though—Li was keeping enough secrets as it was. Maybe she should contact Austria about this—it might help him with his investigation.

The train began to rattle slightly as it started to stop. Hungary gave Li one last, contemplative look before starting to get the luggage down from its shelf over the bunk beds.

* * *

Li sipped at the tea Ukraine had offered her, impressed that the Nation could make it so well. Somehow, Ukraine had found out that Li liked her tea with tea leaves, not the bags they used here, and had obtained something completely foreign to Li, but that tasted quite good. Already, Li was revising her thoughts on Ukraine. If she would do this, she probably wasn't anything like her little brother.

Well, there were other factors as well. At the train station, Ukraine had greeted Li very earnestly, and had been distressed when she dropped the "Welcome to my place" flowers she had brought. After reassurances that the flowers were still fine, Ukraine had proceeded to drive Li and Hungary to her place, stopping at every large red sign on the side of the road and lingering for half a minute before deciding it was okay to continue on.

Upon reaching her house, Ukraine had profusely apologized for the mess, even though the only things that looked out of place were some books on a small table and a stack of letters in weird writing. Everything looked old and worn, and the wallpaper was peeling in some places, but it had been cleaned fastidiously and recently. Some tea was already prepared and waiting, and Ukraine wasted no time offering it to her guests.

Then Belarus had made an appearance. Li hadn't recognized her—she didn't think Belarus had been at the Italies' party, and though she might have been at the meeting on the day Li arrived, well, there had been a lot of Nations there. You couldn't expect Li to remember everyone who had been there, when there was so much going on.

Belarus was clearly a lot different than her elder sister. Where Ukraine wore what looked very much like pants with a top and straps, apparently called "overalls," Belarus wore a lovely dress with an apron and a striped sash. Ukraine had a headband and barrettes—Belarus had a rather pretty bow. Had Li been asked to define them, she would have called Ukraine the kind, pretty girl, where Belarus was the cold beauty.

Cold was the perfect word to describe Belarus. She had barely said a word in all the time since she had arrived. All she had done was sit on the couch, watching Li intently and occasionally sipping at her tea. After Li's luggage—two bags now, thanks to the shopping she and Hungary had done—was taken inside, Ukraine had to leave to drive Hungary back to the train station. That left Belarus and Li alone in Ukraine's house. The silence had long since passed awkward, and was fast approaching the point where Li might bolt if Belarus made any sudden movements.

Then the doorbell rang. Thinking it must be Ukraine, Li rose to go get the door—the large-breasted Nation did seem like the type to accidentally lock herself out of her own house. She was halfway towards the door when Belarus breezed past her, startling Li. Belarus hadn't made a sound, and she was still being as silent as a Tigerdillo as she stalked her way towards the door.

"Sister!" A familiar voice called. "I'm here to collect your gas bill! Sister?" Russia, Li was positive it was Russia. She paused at the corner of the hallway, where she could see the door but could also duck behind the wall if necessary.

Belarus reached the door, and paused. She turned to look into a battered mirror next to the door, and made some minor adjustments to her hair and dress before turning to face the old wood door. There weren't any windows immediately near the door, so Li couldn't see Russia, and he couldn't see inside.

"Brother," Belarus called, slowly opening the door, "marry me."

The minute Russia's face came into view, Li could have laughed, if not for what she already knew about him. He looked completely terrified, standing on the stoop with his little sister blocking almost everything but his head in Li's line of vision. Belarus had her back to Li, so her face was hidden, but her expression must have been scary if Russia was reacting so negatively to it. Lithuania was standing next to Russia, looking…well, not quite excited, but somewhat happy to see Belarus. It was quite possible that he was insane, the result of a head wound sustained from Russia in the past.

"B-Belarus…" Russia squeaked—squeaked! If someone could make Russia squeak, this person deserved Li's respect and fear. Belarus' left hand crept behind her back, and Li clearly saw her pull a dagger out of the large bow in the small of her back. She kept it hidden behind her back, and her right hand slipped around her waist as well to stroke the blade lovingly before switching it to her that hand. Li instinctively shifted back behind the wall.

"Marry me, brother," Belarus stepped forward towards Russia. "I'd be more than happy to become one with you."

That statement confirmed in Li's mind that Belarus was insane. And wasn't Russia her older brother? Was incest common among the Nations? They weren't exactly humans, so maybe the rules that governed their ethics were a bit different? Still…the thought of siblings marrying gave Li a sick feeling in her stomach. It was like…like if her and older brother Aizo got married. Yes, they were close, but some people seemed to think they were closer than just siblings. Li found the idea repulsive. Just because she loved her brother and liked to be around him didn't mean there was anything creepy going on. Holding hands was perfectly acceptable behavior for siblings! It might be a bit childish, yes, but there was nothing to read into it beyond a girl who hadn't seen her brother in years!

"S-sister…ah…is Ukraine home?" Russia tried to salvage his pride. "I need to collect her g-gas bill."

"She left to take Hungary to the train station," Belarus explained. "I don't know when she'll be back."

"Oh…uh…I'll just…come back another time…" Russia attempted to excuse himself. "If you'll excuse me…"

"Why leave, brother?" Belarus' voice grew slightly colder. "You could stay, and we could plan the wedding."

"Oh, no, I couldn't, I'm much too busy," Russia babbled. He looked at Lithuania, perhaps hoping for some help. Lithuania began to smile, and stepped between Belarus and Russia.

"I wouldn't mind staying," he offered. There was a soft, warm look in his eyes as he looked at Belarus. "If you wouldn't mind, that is. Maybe I could help clean before Ukraine comes home? I'm sure she must be worried about that. She's always been very careful about her cleaning, hasn't she?"

"Well…yes," Belarus looked slightly offset by Lithuania's intervention. "But it's quite fine. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to continue speaking to my brother." The female Nation looked up, and realized that, somehow, Russia had managed to disappear. Li hadn't noticed him leave either, and jumped in surprise when Belarus' cry of anger alerted her to that fact. She pushed past Lithuania, onto the street, and set off running.

"She's so beautiful when she's stalking her brother," Lithuania sighed. He turned around to see Li hiding behind the corner of the hall. "Are you okay?" The Fire Nation girl stepped out around the corner, trying not to make it too obvious she was actively trying not to look Lithuania in the eye.

"Um…Belarus, she…" Li trailed off, staring at Lithuania. He looked like a man who'd just kissed his wife in the morning. "Lithuania…you…what the flame?"

"I've been in love with Belarus for years now," Lithuania looked wistful. "She even married me for a few months, right after World War One. But it was just political…she didn't really want me. It ended before a year was out. Then she was back to trying to convince her brother to marry her." A slightly hurt look crossed over Lithuania's face. "Poland says I'm just wasting my time with her, and that I should move on, but…well, have you ever been in love?"

"No," Li shook her head. "Hope I never am. My family doesn't have the best track record with that sort of thing."

"Really?" Lithuania frowned. "Oh…well, I guess I can't describe it to you, then. But trust me, when you fall in love, you'll understand. I just…I would do anything for her, anything she wants. I'll even let her marry her brother, if she wants to, because it'll make her happy. Anything for her." Lithuania's face relaxed into a happy smile once more, as his mind began to wander to thoughts of a happy Belarus. Li stared at him. Was he really so devoted to a woman who didn't seem to care about him? Love _did_ make people insane.

Ukraine appeared in the doorway. "Wh-why did I see Belarus chasing Russia down the street just now?" She cried out, eyes threateningly wet. "M-my poor Russia, I wish I could help…"

"Don't worry, Belarus has never caught him yet," Lithuania reassured her. "She'll probably lose him soon, and he'll get away as always. Then she'll storm into here, go off to a guest bedroom and stay there until it's time to board the train to Minsk." He turned to Li and added, "I live right next to Belarus, so I'll be accompanying you there. Russia thought it was a good idea, since—well, he doesn't quite trust his little sister."

"Oh, I wonder why," Li rolled her eyes. Ukraine burst into fresh tears, and dashed inside, past Li, likely heading for her bedroom. Li fell silent for a moment, then coughed. "Um, I don't live here, but I suppose I should invite you in? Ukraine would do the same, wouldn't she? If she wasn't crying?" Making her host cry…Li was a wonderful guest, wasn't she? Note the sarcasm. Also note the sarcasm of this: Li was sure feeling like the nicest person in the world about then. Why was Ukraine crying?

"Yes, she would. Thank you, it's still cold out," Lithuania stepped into the quaint house and closed the door carefully. He took off the red scarf he'd been wearing and hung it on a hook near the door, then began to rub his ears. "Ukraine's farther south than I am, so it's warmer here than in Vilnius. But March is always cold, isn't it?" The Nation laughed a little. "Oh, your hair's growing out. It looks nice."

"Thank you," Li smiled at her (hopefully) friend. "Um, Ukraine had some tea. I have no idea what it is, but I think I like it. Care for a cup?"

"Sure!" Lithuania grinned. "Ukraine's a good cook. And tea-maker, too." The Nation and human began to walk towards the sitting room where the tea was, still talking. "I lived with her for a while when Russia's house was the Soviet Union. Russia picked on us Baltics, me and Estonia and Latvia, but Ukraine and Belarus were his sisters, so he never had them do any work. But Ukraine liked cooking, so nobody complained when she took the kitchen."

"She said she'd make some…er, what was it…" Li paused. "I think she said 'borshed,' but that's probably not right."

"'Borshed'…" Lithuania thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers. "Borscht?"

"Yeah, that," Li agreed. They reached the sitting room, and Li went to the side table where the pot of tea waited with three extra cups. She poured Lithuania some, and handed him the small cup before picking up her own and taking a sip. Mm, this was good tea. She'd have to find out what it was made from.

"Her borscht is really good," Lithuania commented, taking a drink of the tea. He made an appreciative noise. "This isn't bad. Don't suppose you know what it is?"

"Not a clue," Li shrugged. "I…sort of told you, not two minutes ago."

"Oh…er, sorry," Lithuania apologized. "Didn't recall…well. Sorry."

"That's okay," Li smiled. "Oh…um, do you think I should apologize to Ukraine for what I said? I get the feeling it offended her." Because running off in tears didn't _always_ mean someone was offended, of course…

"I wouldn't be too worried," Lithuania advised. "She cries easily. Just try not to talk about her family. Her and Russia get depressed when that subject comes up. They've had some familial troubles in the past, so it's not much of a surprise, I suppose."

"No," Li agreed. She finished off her cup of tea, then poured herself another. Lithuania did the same.

Their amicable silence was broken by Belarus suddenly appearing in the door. "Brother got away," she snarled. Lithuania smiled and waved. It was all Li could do not to dive behind a couch for cover.

* * *

Germany and Austria were sitting in the living room of Germany's house, both frustrated. Untouched cups of tea and slices of cake sat before them on a coffee table, the tea cold and the cake starting to dry. Neither had spoken for a good while. Papers were strewn across the table, all in German, detailing information on obscure cults and religious groups.

Finally, Austria broke the silence. "All of these resources…" He muttered. "Yet, nobody has heard of the Fire Nation. How is that possible?"

"It's possible," Germany growled, "if Li lied to us."

"Are you sure she did?" Austria sighed. "She doesn't seem like the type who lies well, and yet she has stuck to this story with what seems to be the fervor of someone clinging to the truth. And one of the first things she said after waking up was that she was from the Fire Nation. Do you really think she was lucid enough to lie to us then, when she fainted again almost immediately afterwards?"

"I don't know what to think," Germany groaned. "But she has to be lying. What other explanation is there for our inability to find this 'Fire Nation'?"

"That, I cannot say," Austria admitted. "The facts do point to her lying, as well. But Hungary has assured me that she believes Li was being honest. She is much better at these things than either of us."

"Mmm," Germany grunted in reluctant agreement. There was more silence for a while, until Austria looked up.

"There is a possibility we have not considered yet," Austria spoke slowly. Germany glanced at him, brow furrowed in confusion. "I don't like the thought of it myself, but…well…Li could simply be delusional."

"And the Fire Nation could be a product of her imagination?" Germany sighed.

"It would explain why we cannot learn anything about the Fire Nation," Austria pointed out. "And it might fit better with her story. We must put out a missing person's report, attempt to learn what her real name is."

"We'll have to be discreet," Germany noted. He paused, and then, "But what about the marks on Li's legs, the scars? How can we explain those?"

"If she truly is psychotic, they are likely self-inflicted," Austria said as he leaned forward and picked up his cup of tea. "I will call my police force and have a report filed. You should do the same. Should Li not be from either of our homes, we will have to start reporting her to other police forces as well. After we learn who she is, we can proceed from there."

"Agreed," Germany nodded. He picked up his cake. Hopefully, he would have answers soon.

* * *

**Me: Dun dun duuuuuuuuun!**

**Li: I still don't see how people can read anything into siblings holding hands…**

**Me: In case you're wondering, I'll tell you now, Li associates her brother Aizo with her childhood. When he's around, she starts to get back into the mindset of a kid. Holding hands was no big deal for them then, so as reunited adults they don't see why some people would think more of it. Yes, oh great and mighty Overlord, the Historian speaks to you. An explanation for your comment all those months ago. ^_^ **

**Li: *eyeroll* Care to add any more random comments to your friends?**

**Me: I shall only say that the Fair One's beauty is greater than the sun, and her loveliness a greater gift to the world than water or clean air. Because she is the Fair One, and it's my job to randomly exalt her attractiveness. That is all.**

**Li: Aiya…**


	31. Convince

**Me: …*sneaks in to post the chapter***

**Li: *sigh* Well, since Karen isn't going to talk, I will. She's very sorry about the long pause, with no warning, but this chapter fought her tooth and nail from the start and what with school starting she didn't have the time to edit it properly. Furthermore, she's lazy to a fault and has recently found several sites for reading manga online that have captured her complete attention for like a month. But she is very, very guilty about not posting for so long and not telling anybody about what she's been up to—unless you're PMing her, in which case she's been pretty consistent with talking to you—and so she made this chapter a bit longer than usual.**

**Another reason for why she's been silent so long is that she had some troubles writing a couple of chapters that come after this, and somehow what was **_**meant**_** to be a one-chapter crack arc has become three chapters that did not want to leave the "safety" of Karen's head. Let's not forget that her brain is evil and making her write a couple of independent stories that are mostly crack-ish, but that she is determined to give some vague form of meaning to. I'm really not sure how she's still free, and not in a padded white room. **

**In the meantime, here is a new chapter of Fire Lily. Karen promises to keep to weekly updates after this, so far as classes will permit—if she finds herself having to suddenly prepare for a test, she'll skip posting to study, and will apologize later when she posts again—and would like you all to know just how sorry she is for the absence. **

**Karen does not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, Hetalia: Axis Powers, or history. Or current events. Just me.**

* * *

Li climbed out of Lithuania's car, pulling her coat tighter around herself. The streets of Vilnius were mostly silent at this early hour, and the sun was only just peeking over the horizon. It had been something of a long ride here from Belarus's house in Minsk, but Lithuania was pleasant company. They had gotten out of bed closer to midnight than dawn—and seeing as Li could sense the sun's position to a certain extent, she was pretty sure it was the middle of the night when they'd started driving—to try and make it to their destination before the roads became too busy.

Belarus had practically thrown them out the door when they left her house. Li's stay had been cold and uncomfortable for the most part, thanks to Belarus's icy silence and freezing stares that almost qualified as glares. Lithuania hadn't called attention to it, but he had always been just around the corner whenever Li and Belarus were alone in a room together. If Li didn't know better, she would say Belarus had a grudge against her…but since they had pretty much just met at Ukraine's house that was unlikely. Maybe Li had done something since then to offend Belarus? But the Nation had been acting that way ever since she met Li! And Li didn't want to ask Lithuania about it, because that would be rude, wouldn't it?

Whatever Li had done to make Belarus so distant could be forgotten for the time being, though. Lithuania was trying to open the door to his house and carry Li's bags at the same time, but he kept nearly dropping something and having to stop to readjust things. Li picked her way over to him carefully, being sure not to slip on the ice, and took two of her bags from him. With a grateful smile, Lithuania unlocked his front door and pushed it open.

"Come inside," he offered, gesturing for Li to go first. She complied, and tapped her shoes on a rough mat just inside the door before stepping further in. Her bags were momentarily set on the floor as the Nation and human took their shoes off, and Lithuania picked them all up again as Li started to take off her coat.

"Oh, I can get those—" Li tried to say, but Lithuania cut her off.

"I'll just take these to the guest room on the second floor," he smiled. "Why don't you go to the living room and make yourself comfortable? It's just through that door to your left. When I get down I'll make some breakfast. Do you have any preferences?"

"Uh, just make whatever you want," Li returned Lithuania's smile and hung her coat on a hook near the door. Lithuania turned down a hallway right in front of them, humming something to himself as he went.

Li nearly tripped over an extra pair of Lithuania's shoes—though she wouldn't have pegged him as the type to wear green—as she walked towards the living room door of his house. What light came into the entryway of the house was from the streets outside, as neither Li nor Lithuania had remembered that there was a light switch, so it was rather dark. Under the crack of the door to the living room Li could see a faint glow. Lithuania had probably left a light on by accident.

She grasped the doorknob, an old metal fixture with ornate engravings all over it. The metal was cool under her hands, and Li resisted the urge to heat herself up. She'd already tried it in the car, before the heater started to really work, and Lithuania had been forced to open a window. Instead, she pushed the door open—

-and found herself facing a young man with shoulder-length blond hair, who was relaxing on Lithuania's couch with a glass of some clear liquid in one hand.

"Uhh…hi?" Li blinked at him. The man's mouth opened, then shut, then opened again. His face turned a fierce shade of red, and he looked off to one side while pressing his mouth shut as tightly as he could. Some sort of mumbling came from his mouth, but whatever it was supposed to be, Li couldn't make it out.

"All right, the guest room is all set up," Lithuania entered the entryway behind Li, and walked over to her. "Why are you just standing in the do—Po?"

"Liet!" The man looked over, a grin suddenly lighting his face. "I was gonna, like, totally surprise you! Didn't even sleep last night, I, like, wanted to get over here on time! Oh, hope you don't mind but I sorta cleaned out your fridge, I was wicked hungry when I arrived."

"Heh…same old Po…" Lithuania chuckled. It sounded a bit forced. Li stepped back and aside to let Lithuania enter the room, and Poland stood to greet his fellow Nation.

"I hope you don't mind, but I got bored around three am and decided to redecorate the dining room," Poland continued cheerfully. "It's like totally awesome now! Hope you don't mind pink. Oh, and I thought those old plates you had were really boring so I got you some new ones."

"Thanks…?" Lithuania looked like he wasn't sure whether to be grateful for what Poland said he'd done or if he should be mad. Deciding this was as good a time as any to interrupt, Li stepped into the room after Lithuania and bowed in greeting to Poland.

"Hello," she put on her best smile and tried to look friendly. "I've heard about you from Lithuania and Hungary. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Li."

"Oh, uh, um, hi?" Poland stammered. He looked to Lithuania pleadingly.

"Don't be shy, Po," Lithuania gave him an encouraging look. "Li, this is my old friend Poland. I hope the two of you can get along."

"Sure," Li nodded politely. She turned to Poland and bowed again. "I hope we can be friends."

"Uh-huh," Poland not-so-subtly hid behind Lithuania. "I do too…" He kept talking, but it all turned into mumbling after "too." Lithuania gave a tired laugh and started to rub his temples with both hands. After maybe a minute Poland fell silent, and an awkward silence reigned.

Li wound up blurting the first thing that came to mind: "Is there anything to eat?" Poland and Lithuania both stared at her in surprise—Poland, of course, safely hidden behind his friend. "I mean," Li tried to clarify so she wouldn't look like a fool, "it's really early, and I haven't eaten since yesterday afternoon at Belarus's house, so it'd be great to have some food now."

"Well, there might be some pancake meal left in a cupboard…" Poland glanced up at the ceiling as he spoke, still not meeting Li's eyes. "And I know I left the cream alone, because Liet always likes eating pancakes with it…maybe I saw a bag of red currents somewhere too…?"

"Oh, I'll take care of it," Lithuania offered. "Po, you can turn on the morning news. I'd like to know what to expect in terms of weather."

"Uh, no, I can help with cooking," Poland grabbed Lithuania's shoulders and pressed himself against his friend, rather conveniently hiding most of himself from Li's sight. "Just tell me what you need done…"

Not sure if she should be offended by Poland's apparent shyness, Li took a seat on an armchair next to a stone fireplace. Lithuania's living room was a bit shabby in comparison to Austria's, but there was a more homely feeling to it. Wooden walls and floors were covered in paintings and thick rugs, with wooden furniture distributed around the room. A desk in one corner was covered in papers—maybe Lithuania did his work there?

"Please, Poland, I don't want to seem like a rude host by leaving my guest alone while I cook," Lithuania pleaded was pleading with Poland. "If you could just turn on the television and maybe make some small talk? You can tell her about your plans for redecorating your house next month! And a bit about your history, if you'd like?"

"Well…" Poland mumbled.

"Um," Li held up a hand to catch the Nations' attention. "If you wouldn't mind, Poland, I'd love to hear about your history. I don't know much about the world, so I'd like to learn all I can."

"Sure thing!" Poland puffed out his chest and grinned proudly. "Liet, can you, like, go make us some food? I'll tell Li all about the time we beat up Prussia!"

"All right," Lithuania nodded. "And turn on the news?"

"That too," Poland laughed.

"Wait, you beat up Prussia? When?" Li leaned forward in her seat eagerly. "What happened? Was it a battle? How'd you deploy your troops? What sort of soldiers did you have…?"

* * *

The Earth Kingdom—or Toyo, as she preferred to be called—resisted the urge to giggle as she walked beside the Fire Nation. He was becoming increasingly agitated as they walked down a thin stone path in a forest. Snow was falling: roughly a hundred yards behind them, temperatures were equivalent to spring in Ba Sing Se. It was one of Wanban's little quirks: the small realm of the Spirit World mimicked the mortal realm the Nations came from, despite its much smaller landmass. Beyond this forest was a plain of ice and snow—and a small hunter's hut constructed of ice and animals furs.

It was fairly obvious to an observer that the Fire Nation didn't want to be there. But he was pushing himself on, forcing himself to continue, with a determined look in his eyes that reminded Toyo of their youth together. She hadn't seen that look since the War began. Maybe this meant he was coming back to himself, to the Fire Nation that Toyo remembered.

In any case, the nervous twitch of his hand as he walked, the slight shifts in his stance, and the rare hesitation of his step, all added up to him desperately wanting to go back, but refusing to allow himself to do so. Not that it didn't make sense—they were about to visit someone who hadn't been on the best of terms with the Fire Nation for a couple of centuries. It was only reasonable to be apprehensive.

"We can always go back and get my sons to come with us, you know," Toyo whispered to the Fire Nation. He never used his human name, not even with his daughter. "I'm sure Taro and Chen would be more than happy to accompany us. And Cadeo is never one to object to traveling."

"No," Fire Nation replied shortly. Toyo sighed—his pride had always gotten the better of him. He wasn't going to accept help from anyone else, save for her, who had needed to guilt him into allowing her to come. She tried to focus on the path before her, but her eyes kept wanting to stray to Zhuang, the Fire Nation, who so rarely visited her anymore.

How had things changed? There was a time when he practically lived at her home, doing his best to teach her how to be the best Nation she could be. That had been when she was newly created as a Nation, and knew next to nothing of how to conduct herself. Zhuang had given her all the knowledge of humans that her brothers hadn't passed along to her—how to live amongst them without raising suspicion in the less open-minded ones, the best way to work with the different types of leaders she would have, why humans did what they did…if not for him, she might not have lasted this long.

The path wound around a dense patch of foliage, and abruptly ended at the start of the snowy plains. Zhuang hesitated once more before putting a foot into the white covering, and winced as the temperature took a noticeable drop. His lands were quite warm, resulting in his body radiating heat more than a Firebender. While that meant his clothes warmed considerably as he walked into the freezing wasteland, it also meant that his body was constantly losing heat. This weather wasn't exactly conducive to keeping him warm, and he'd once again underestimated the temperature and underdressed. He did that a lot, Toyo had noticed. Perhaps she should say something about it one of these days.

Toyo herself stepped into the snow with no more than a slight sigh of displeasure. She had lands of most temperatures inside of her, and thus was better equipped to handle the cold—not that she enjoyed it more than the Fire Nation. No, the Earth Kingdom's favorite temperatures were found in spring, when the world renewed itself and the earth came to life once more. Zhuang preferred the heat of summer, the dry winds that stole the water from the world. He was so much like Taro, the Si Wong Desert, in that way, though to mention it would bring vehement denials from both the Fire Nation and Toyo's son. A pity they refused to get along, they would make the best of friends…or, so Toyo believed. Even before the War, Taro had been an isolationist.

The snow crunched beneath their boots, a reminder of where they were. Toyo attempted to scan the landscape for footprints from someone else, but the snow was beginning to fall thicker and thicker. Perhaps it knew of the animosity this land's resident felt for the Fire Nation, and was trying to drive them back. Nothing was really out of the question in the Spirit World: you couldn't predict anything in some of the wilder realms. Even Wanban had its quirks, although the Nations had generally agreed it was a calm place to live after leaving their mortal realm.

"Are you sure about this?" Toyo shouted to her companion, hand reaching out to him. Zhuang paused, then accepted it politely. The Earth Kingdom smiled bitterly—there'd been a time when she wouldn't have had to bother reaching for him in the first place, because he would have already reached out for her. Things between them had changed so much, since the War, since…

"We'll need everyone's agreement for this to work," Zhuang yelled over the wind. "The two of us may control the most land, but to help us defeat the Tóngyī ShÌjiè, we'll need his help as well. And his sister's, and your grandson's, and the two Air brothers. Without them to inspire their people with our existence, everything will fall apart."

"But couldn't we have just sent a messenger hawk, and waited for him to come to us?" Toyo turned her head towards Zhuang, trying to avoid having snow blow into her mouth. The visibility was dropping drastically, as was the temperature—how far north did this correspond to in their mortal realm? Surely they were almost there…

"He would never have left his home," Zhuang answered. His hood was threatening to blow off, and he brought his free hand up to hold onto it. "And at the very mention of my name, he would have killed the hawk and eaten it for supper, then sent a message to his sister to do the same."

"We could have gone to my grandson first," Toyo pointed out. "Suman would love to convince his mother and uncle to speak to you. He's been having a hard time, not being allowed to see his aunt because of your foolish feud with the rest of his family."

"The Foggy Swamp Water Tribe is a hick, and I will not go into his disgusting swamp unless it is absolutely necessary," Zhuang managed to sniff the comment as if he was an aristocrat in a palace. Toyo sighed—he had become more refined with age, it seemed. When they were both young, he'd had no objections whatsoever to playing in the mud and getting so dirty passer-bys joked that he was a mud monster. Yet another thing about him to change…

The snow was making it hard for Toyo to see Zhuang now, despite her best efforts to pick out his familiar features through the white flakes swirling everywhere. She pulled up her scarf over her nose and mouth, squeezing Zhuang's hand to reassure herself that he was still there. He squeezed back, pulling her closer to him, and she felt her arm collide with his side, and his hand released hers so his arm could fall about her shoulders.

"It's cold…" She heard him mutter, and Toyo grinned in spite of everything. He was probably blushing a deep red, refusing to look at her. Yes, a quick glance up at him confirmed it. Oh, he was so cute when he denied that he enjoyed this, snuggling up together as they walked along, like they had when they were young during the winter months at her home, or when he had conquered—

Toyo cut the thought off abruptly. It's past, she told herself sternly. Past and gone, and he will never again do what he did. My children will never lose a sibling again, and he will never allow the War's circumstances to repeat. Let it go.

The two of them forged their way through the blinding snow for what seemed like hours, but was likely not even thirty minutes. Something seemed to be stealing the warmth from the very air, until Toyo was afraid her extremities would freeze and fall off. Zhuang held her as close as he seemed to dare, and Toyo completely disregarded his personal space by pressing closer. He was definitely having second thoughts about this plan, she mused.

Then the snow started to lessen, and Toyo spied a blurry blue figure approaching. She alerted the Fire Nation by tightening her arm around his waist, the pressure catching his attention so she could nod towards the figure and let him know it was there. Both of them stopped walking, and the figure resolved into a tall, extremely muscled man clad in thick blue furs.

"Karan," Toyo began to call out to him, but Zhuang stopped her.

"Let him get closer before speaking," the Fire Nation advised. "If he's here, he wants to speak to us, despite my presence—maybe because of it. But let him do the greeting." Toyo fell silent, a little frustrated that Zhuang had told her what to do, but trusting his judgment. Well, maybe that wasn't such a good idea…he was the one whose rulers had swayed him into attacking those who were once his friends.

The man who represented the Northern Water Tribe stopped three yards away from his visitors, and regarded them silently. He had a clean-shaven and tanned face, with piercing blue eyes that gave the Earth Kingdom a shiver of apprehension. She could never forget the first time she had seen eyes like that—when Amrit, the original Water Tribe, had spoken to her as he descended into madness. His children had inherited his eyes, and they scared Toyo for the reminder of what would happen if her people decided to split.

Karan, the Northern Water Tribe, tilted his head slightly. A whalebone spear rested in one hand, his grip loose and relaxed. Slung over one shoulder was a dead Polar Sea Lion, blood from a wound in its torso leaking onto Karan's blue furs and staining them brown and red. The facemask that would normally cover the lower portion of his face and shield it from the wind was pulled down, revealing thin lips twisted into a smile that was part amusement and part derision.

"So you did come to speak to me," he said, voice deep and rough. "Freeze me now, the brat's letter was for real."

"Letter?" Zhuang stiffened beside her, and Toyo frowned in confusion. None of her children had told anyone else about the decision to leave yet, had they? She'd asked them to wait at home while she and Zhuang went north to speak to Karan, and to keep silent when they went south to speak to Karan's sister Sirikit, the Southern Water Tribe.

"My nephew sent me a hawk, saying you wanted to return to the mortal realm," Karan explained. "I thought he was just playing some sort of prank, but the kid was telling the truth. You're here. And you'd only be here if you wanted to talk about something important, something like going home."

"Cadeo…" Toyo groaned. Of course. Her son Omashu was on good terms with his own child, the Foggy Swamp Water Tribe, so naturally he would have sent word to his son at the first chance he got. And Suman wanted his mother and uncle's approval more than anything, so naturally he would have told them. She should have known this would happen…

"Then, I don't suppose I could get your answer?" Zhuang challenged Karan. The taller man's smile twisted up on one side, and he shrugged.

"Come to my hut. You must both be freezing…especially you, Flamey," Karan said the last word like a taunt, and Toyo felt Zhuang's hand start to curl into a fist. This was why she'd wanted to bring one of her sons along. Water and fire never mixed well, and Zhuang and Karan had plenty of reasons to dislike each other. If a fight didn't break out in a minute…

But then Karan chortled a bit, and turned so that his back was facing them both. "Come on," he spoke over his shoulder, "my home is this way." He started walking, clearly not caring if they followed or not. Toyo tugged on Zhuang, and he reluctantly began to follow her lead, falling in behind Karan.

"Little bastard, no flaming respect for his elders, thinks he can disrespect me because he has a dead thing in his arms…" Zhuang was muttering. Toyo nudged him.

"This is his home," she reminded her old love softly. "We should respect him. Don't you have a custom of showing deference to your host?"

"That custom says nothing of my host being a dumb brute," Zhuang answered shortly.

"I can hear you both back there!" Karan shouted. Toyo winced—she'd forgotten how good his hearing was.

* * *

Li had noticed before that the Nations had strange decorations in their homes. These contraptions varied from house to house, from large boxes with a glossy surface on one side to almost painting-like, wall-mounted frames. All of them were placed in prominent locations, angled just right so everyone could see the strange material that was set into one side. Because nobody had done anything with them, Li had dismissed them as unimportant, and never bothered to ask what they were.

Now, of course, she had more than a few questions about them. Because that strange surface was glowing, and showing images of people sitting behind desks and standing outside, while noises that were presumably them talking spewed out.

Poland didn't seem sure of what to do. He had pressed a few buttons on a small device he called a "remote," and like magic, the box had begun to emit light. Li, having never seen anything of the sort, had promptly taken refuge behind her armchair and was peeking around it, fascinated by this "television." Lithuania was still in the kitchen—neither of the two in the living room wanted to disturb him—so he couldn't explain to Li what it was. Despite having just described his and Lithuania's military prowess in the past, Poland was once more tongue-tied around Li. With no explanation coming, Li was forced to think one up on her own, however implausible the result turned out to be.

She had discarded spirits and a prank early on, and was settling on the only believable explanation she could—magic. A box—a _box_, for the love of Pele!—was glowing, the "screen" was showing images of people Li had never met and likely never would, noise was coming out of it…definitely magic. What else could it be?

So, the television was definitely magical. What was its purpose? Lithuania had mentioned the "morning news," implying whatever was on was telling those watching a "television" things that were happening. Clearly the television was a method of instant communication for people too far away to meet in person, or for when time was important and a messenger hawk—or whatever they used as messenger hawks here—couldn't make the journey in time.

But wait, what about…"telephones"? "Cell phones"? Those were ways of speaking to people across long distances as well, and cellphones were much easier to carry. Of course, they didn't let you see someone physically sitting in a chair, speaking to you about what was going on. You could even see pictures, so accurate Li wondered if they were going to start moving at any second, which showed scenes of what was happening in another place.

If the television was a method of communication, maybe it worked both ways? The people on the screen hadn't given any sign that they saw Poland or Li, but maybe they were just being polite because of how scared Li seemed. Well, that wouldn't do. Li should respect them and listen properly.

Poland glanced up at her as she eased her way out from behind the armchair. He didn't say anything, just looked back at the television. Careful not to let on that she was still apprehensive, Li took a seat and straightened her shirt, tugging down the end of one leg on her jeans. She straightened her back and rested her hands on the chair's armrests. Even though she had no idea what the people in the television were saying, she began to nod whenever it seemed appropriate, forcing a vaguely interested look onto her face so as not to offend anyone.

This world would take a lot of getting used to…

* * *

Karan settled down next to the firepit in his home. Toyo looked up from her lap, where she had directed her gaze since Karan first began to butcher the seal meat. Now he was arranging a pot over the fire, filled with water and seal meat and a few types of seaweed. At least there were no Sea Prunes—yech. How Karan or his sister could _like_ those things was a complete mystery to Toyo.

Zhuang was next to her, sitting rigidly. His eyes were focused on Karan, as they likely had been all through the butchering. One hand was absently toying with the hem of his coat, curling the fabric up and releasing it only to curl it up again. No emotion showed from his face—he was trying to appear as stoic as he could. Karan was doing the same thing. Men.

"Now," Karan looked at his visitors and raised an eyebrow, "convince me that I should go back to the mortal realms and rejoin my people."

Zhuang started slightly in surprise, and to be honest, Toyo did as well. Karan wanted to be convinced to _leave_ this place? All of the other Nations in Wanban desired to return to their people, as a matter of course—they didn't enjoy living away from the places and humans that gave them life. It was why Toyo had been so ready to go home when the Fire Nation first proposed it to her in her parlor that morning. But the Northern Water Tribe was happy here?

"Because your people need you," Toyo blurted out before Zhuang could say anything. Both men looked at her in surprise, so she swallowed and continued. "You know what's happened—I sent you a message yesterday, when word reached me. The rightful Fire Lord, Li Wu, died in your home almost two days ago. She was murdered by an agent of the Tóngyī ShÌjiè…only, she didn't quite die. I mean, she should have died, and her body certainly appeared dead, but her soul was not allowed to go to the Land of the Dead. Yue, the Moon Spirit, had her body placed in the Spirit Oasis to preserve her and heal her body's wounds. It died, so it needs to be completely rejuvenated, and only prolonged time with Yue's healing will allow that to work."

"I knew that part before anyone else, actually," Karan admitted, one hand involuntarily coming up to touch the cloth over his heart as he instinctively looked down at the fire. "When she died…well, it was more like a twinge than anything else. Flamey here definitely knew it was her before me." At the nickname, Zhuang's lips turned down in a displeased frown. Toyo nudged him gently in the side with an elbow, and he remained silent. "But I felt Yue doing whatever it was she did, and when they put Li in my heart—I mean, the Oasis—something happened. I'm not sure what, but one of the spirits much more powerful than her was at work."

"Really?" Toyo blinked before remembering she was speaking, and hastened to continue. "What I don't know if you know is that Li's soul has disappeared."

"What?" Karan's head snapped up. "That part I missed."

"Some unknown force has sent Li's soul elsewhere, to another mortal realm, and we don't know which," Zhuang gritted his teeth in anger. "They've stolen my Fire Lord…" His voice hardened with anger. "The Avatar and the Fire Lord's bodyguard have entered the Spirit World to search for her with Yue, and the guardian spirit of Wulong Forest has joined them. In the meantime, I have come to the decision that it is best for the Nations to return to the mortal realm and aid in inspiring our people to overthrow the Tóngyī ShÌjiè. You yourself are one of the few managing to avoid their rule—don't you want to be rid of them before they can control you as well?"

"Who says they'll wanna?" Karan faked a yawn—or, Toyo thought he was faking it. It was much too dramatic to have been a real yawn. "I mean, I'm just a bunch of people living in the middle of ice and snow. Why would they want me?"

"Because the Tóngyī ShÌjiè desire to unite the world into one—One World, as their name implies, one people, one Nation," Zhuang's voice grew bitter. "And none of the current Nations fit the requirements for that One Nation they want to create." Karan looked thoughtful, so Zhuang pressed his advantage. "Haven't you felt yourself becoming weaker and weaker, the strength leeching from your flesh as the Tóngyī grow stronger and their influence broader?"

"Well…yeah," Karan admitted, closing his eyes. "My people…they're doubting. They live such hard lives, and risk death to remain in the homes of their ancestors, when they can sometimes not even feed their children. And the Tóngyī promises that they will be well-fed and rich if they should join them, and sometimes it…it feels like…like I'm being torn in two…" His last words were heavy with emotion, fear and sorrow. Toyo couldn't blame him—his father Amrit had described the sensation of separating into two people as being much the same. Being like his father, dying insane and alone…Karan feared that more than anything.

"If you return, and inspire your people," the Earth Kingdom told him gently, "that pain will stop, and you will be reunited with your home."

"What if I shouldn't?" Karan's eyes shot open. "What if this needs to happen? What if my death is a necessary thing, so that my people can live better lives? Why should I survive, if my people will continue dying in the cold because of a selfish decision?"

"Because the Tóngyī lies!" Zhuang roared, springing to his feet. "They promised my people equality, but my citizens starve while their food goes to those who hate them! They labor in factories to create machines used to kill rebels—their own kin! If I could, I would destroy every last member of the Tóngyī ShÌjiè, burn them to the ground and spit on their ashes! But I can't, because the Tóngyī ShÌjiè will massacre my people and raze my lands, and think _nothing_ of it! Maybe you'll be lucky and receive their favor, but the Tóngyī never gives more than it takes!"

Toyo was stunned. Zhuang's words were true, but she hadn't expected him to speak them so…forcefully. Her own people suffered as well, but not nearly as much as the Fire Nation's citizens—after all, the rulers of the Tóngyī ShÌjiè were primarily from her lands, those who hated the Fire Nation for crimes best forgotten these days.

Karan was silent as well, staring up at the furious Zhuang with wide eyes…until he laughed. It was a full-throated laugh, almost derisive by nature, and Zhuang began to steam as it went on, until just as abruptly as it began, it stopped.

"How could I say no after a speech like that, Flamey?" Karan grinned. "When do we leave?"


	32. Shadows

**Me: And as promised! Another chapter of Fire Lily! My, how time flies…it seems like just yesterday I was posting the last chapter…**

**Li: And now someone needs to hit the books, because she has a test coming up that she's yet to study for.**

**Me: Ah, how true~! But I feel more like drawing instead…**

**Li: No. Italy can pull off being Italian, for obvious reasons, but you cannot. Don't even try.**

**Me: You're so meeeeeean to meeee!**

**Li: Yes, yes I am. Now let's go find your brain so you can get back to normal.**

**Me: Wheeee…**

**Li: *eyeroll* Karen does not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or Hetalia, only her original characters, which consist of me and two other characters that you will see in this chapter, one of whom is Monk Gege and one of whom you'll learn a bit about. I am also compelled to mention that the Fair One technically owns Karen's originally characters as well, making us all jointly owned. Ain't that fun…**

**Karen: Heeeeey, there's a cookie over there…**

**Li: Now please excuse me while we try to figure out where Karen's brain went, and enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

"No leads from the missing persons reports…" Germany muttered to himself, leafing through a file. "And nothing in Russia or his neighbors. Mein Gott, it can't be this difficult to find a simple lead on someone like this!"

"It is very frustrating," Austria admitted, sipping at his tea. He had a similar file to Germany's placed on the table before him, opened, and with a few papers visible. It was a letter in French to the leader of the Special International Criminal Investigation Squad, explaining that no missing persons files matched the information he had sent. Germany was starting to get impatient with Austria for using that ruse, especially since there _was_ no Special International Criminal Investigation Squad (SICIS for short). Although, he had to admit, it was a very useful ruse…

"No cults that call themselves the Fire Nation, no leads on missing persons, no known countries that go by that name…" Germany ground his teeth. He knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't help himself. It was a bad habit from World War Two, when Italy kept him worried almost constantly. "It's as if she simply sprang into existence in the Russian snow. Have you sent the other countries' police forces the information?"

"I have," Austria nodded. "Hopefully we will receive a result from one of them. Though, this might be easier if we could determine which language she speaks…how could you not have noticed it before?"

"You didn't either," Germany reminded his friend irritably. "Besides, we can understand any human language instinctively. It can be challenging to search our memories for the exact language when we know them all anyways."

"I still think you should have noticed it earlier," Austria drank more of his tea, face mostly bland. "In any case, knowing what language she speaks would be useful. Perhaps we could call Lithuania and ask?"

"How would we explain that?" Germany sighed. "Lithuania has been afraid of me since before the World Wars, and what reason could we give for wanting to know? 'We're investigating Li to see if she's a runaway or a cult member, and knowing what language she speaks will help us narrow down where she could be from'? He seems to like her, and he might take offence at such an implication. Or worse, he could tell Russia."

Austria made a face at the thought of Russia learning about their investigation. The northern Nation had also taken an interest in Li's case, likely due to her appearing in his land, and might not approve of having been kept out of the investigative loop so far. It would have been best to seek out his help before now, but…honestly, if they didn't have to involve Russia, they didn't want to. He was more than a little intimidating.

Germany picked up his beer, thinking. There had to be results from the files Austria sent to the other countries—if not, this would be so much harder. If Li wasn't on file somewhere as being missing, that meant her family hadn't reported her missing, or that her family didn't exist and Li was somehow living off the grid. He'd even had driver's license pictures and the international criminal database run against a few pictures of her Austria had taken subtly while she was staying with him, and her fingerprints were compared with all those on record, but the results were conclusive: Li had never lived in Germany or Austria, France, a Baltic nation, or Russia, nor had she committed any crimes. Perhaps she was Ukrainian or Belarusian, but her build and coloring didn't track with Slavic ancestry. Still, they needed to eliminate all possibilities before moving on to another region.

"What will we do if we cannot find a lead in the other countries?" Austria asked suddenly. Germany looked up at him, brows furrowed in confusion, and saw he was being serious. Well then.

"If we can find no leads elsewhere, we will have to interview her and determine if she is delusional," Germany settled back in his seat. "Perhaps we should also start looking for escapees from mental facilities, and see if any of them could have gone to Russia. Maybe…" He hesitated. Something inside of him just didn't like the thought that Li was insane. It didn't track with her behavior. "We'll see what we get. If we don't find anything from mental institutions or missing persons, we will meet again and decide what to do from there."

"That sounds like a good plan," Austria nodded. He looked up at the ceiling, expression slightly absent. "Li should be travelling to Finland about now. I spoke to her on the phone yesterday, and she sounded as if she was doing well. She is curious about what the Nordic countries will be like…I believe Estonia has convinced her that he is Nordic as well."

Germany snorted at that. "Denmark will set her straight. Let's just hope he doesn't try to convince Li of come foolish story on April Fools' day."

"I'm more apprehensive of what France might try," Austria shook his head. "He has always made the day a chore for us before. Do you remember what he did several Christmases ago?"

"Mm," Germany agreed, drinking from his beer. "Let's hope he doesn't do the same thing this year."

* * *

Li stepped out of the ferry and shivered, drawing her coat closer around herself. It seemed like she was only going farther and farther north in her travels. What had happened to the lovely weather in Italy? Couldn't she have stayed there? Well, at least Estonia had said Finland was nice.

Speaking of Estonia, he was following her out of the boat, a happy look on his face. He was wearing several layers less than Li, which to the young Firebender translated as insanity. Then again, he didn't live that far south—it could be he was just used to this sort of weather. No, because that was insanity too. Who would want to live in a place so far north? Like the Northern Water Tribe…or the Southern Water Tribe, although nobody really knew where they lived anymore. Li had decided years ago that they were all a few branches short of a bonfire. Especially Liandao. Liandao was so far gone, it was a wonder she was such a skilled Waterbender. Because clearly anybody who lived willingly in such a cold place was not well in the head.

A young man, who looked to be a few years older than Li, was waving enthusiastically from what Li would judge to be around fifty feet away. Estonia tugged her sleeve, breaking her train of thought, and pointed at the man with a grin on his face. "That's Finland over there," he told Li cheerfully. "We're good friends. I'll help bring your things to his place, and he'll take you on a tour of Helsinski."

"What's he like?" Li asked, shouldering a bag Hungary had bought her called a "backpack." It was filled with the things Li had used overnight on the ferry to Finland's capital. Estonia had spent the time either sleeping or deeply absorbed in a book, while Li slept. Her stay at Latvia's had been enjoyable, despite the Nation's apparent habit of almost injuring himself by accident. There had been several times when Li was almost sure she would have a heart attack because of him falling down stairs or tripping over his own two feet. Thankfully, nothing fazed him for long.

Well, there had been one somewhat scary incident. Russia had shown up for tea around three o'clock, and Latvia had begun to shake like a leaf in a windstorm. To be honest, Li had been more than a little unnerved by it. She kept flashing back to Russia saying that the design around her in the snow was their secret. The scent of ice and snow and old blood seemed to radiate from his clothing, an aura of scent that set Li's stomach churning.

Russia was perfectly polite all through the visit, asking questions about her travels and how she was adjusting to the temperature. He'd seemed to agree with her declaration that it was too cold, but he'd been quick to point out that it was starting to warm up. When Latvia stumbled and splashed both Russia and Li with steaming hot tea, the northern Nation hadn't done as Li expected and threatened the younger Nation—he'd made a few noises that sounded like "kolkolkol" and wiped himself off, then seemed ignorant that he'd said anything at all. At last, he left, leaving both Li and Latvia rattled.

Estonia's house hadn't been subject to a visit, thank Pele. The Nation made for a surprisingly engaging conversation, and he was very knowledgeable about the technology of this world. His explanations had cleared up many questions Li had, and he'd even shown her how to use a "remote control" to change things on the television, from the loudness to the pictures on it. Then he'd taught her about computers, and gone into a long-winded explanation about how they worked that had Li spacing out a few sentences in. Both machines unnerved Li, but she was at least able to understand that the people in the boxes had to do whatever she told them to do with the remote. Estonia seemed amused by how fascinated Li was with the device, and had joked—at least, Li hoped it was a joke—about how nice it would be if they could find a remote that controlled "real life."

And his pets…Estonia's pets were adorable! They were small, round, soft, fluffy…_things_. Li adored them. One, which Estonia said was American, had been quite rude to the others, and when Li observed that the "Canadian"(whatever that was) pet looked a bit like the American, it had started screaming about how it wasn't American, it was Canadian, and nothing at all like Americans! She'd spent several hours stroking it after that to calm it down while Estonia talked about "microchips" and "electricity."

Electricity…another thing Li found hard to believe. Harnessing lightning? None of Estonia's explanations made much sense, until he'd tried comparing it to burning something. That Li grasped the basics of it, and she'd managed to gather that basically electricity was burning wires that somehow powered things like the television and computers. It had also made her fairly sure that letting her anger get out of hand around anything "electrical" was a bad idea. Her problem with that was how almost everything around the Nations seemed to be "electrical," even their strange torches!

Finland met Li and Estonia halfway through the crowd of people getting off the ferry. "Hei!" The blond Nation greeted them. "Estonia, it's nice to see you again! Li, hei! I don't know if you recognize me, but I'm Finland. It's wonderful to have you in Helsinki!"

"Nice to meet you," Li clapped her hands together in the traditional Fire Nation symbol of deference—right hand fisted and placed at the bottom of the straight and upright left hand—and bowed. Finland tilted his head in confusion, but shrugged it off.

A small white creature walked around Finland's legs and sniffed at Li's feet. Its tail started to wag as it looked up at Li with an adorable face.

"Oh, and this is my dog, Hanatamago," Finland introduced the two, bending down to pick up the small creature. "I wanted to name him Bloody Hanatamago, but Sweden said I shouldn't. He can speak on Christmas!"

"…Can he, now," Li blinked. "Err…what's Christmas, again?"

* * *

Monk Gege sat behind his desk, going through paperwork. Who would have thought there was so much paperwork involved in running the world? Well, not the entire world, not yet: the Earth Kingdom was completely under Tóngyī ShÌjiè control, as were the archipelagos of official Air Nomad territory, but parts of the Fire Nation and both the Northern and Southern Water Tribes had yet to submit. Nobody even knew where the Southern Water Tribe _lived_ anymore, though how that was possible, he wasn't sure. Several teams had been sent south to scour the tundra, but aside from a few Earth Kingdom-run trading posts frequented by Southern Water Tribe warriors and Waterbenders, there was no sign of their existence. Which was, quite obviously, impossible, and yet here Gege was, reading a report from the leader of one team on how several Water Tribe boats vanished behind an iceberg while being followed.

He set the paper down and sighed, one hand coming up to rub his tired eyes. The candle flame next to him was burning low, and would have to be replaced soon. Maybe when a servant came to check on him…

In one corner, the shadows began to deepen, then swirl together into a form not unlike that of a small human. It took five minutes for Gege to realize what was happening. The moment he noticed, he shot to his feet, his chair clanging loudly against the metal floor. He winced—that would have been audible several floors below and above. Sure enough, he could already hear feet racing towards the door to his office.

"Lord Gege! We heard a noise!" One soldier threw the door open. Gege shook his head, trying to rid it of the lack of sleep accumulated from the past weeks.

"I fell asleep, and woke suddenly," the older man explained to his soldier. "When I did, I was startled by something from my dream, and knocked my chair over. Please don't pay any attention to it. Return to your post."

"Lord Gege…" the soldier's eyes clouded for a moment with—was that pity? Yes, Gege believed it was. Pity for the work the leader of the Tóngyī ShÌjiè had to do to keep his fledgling world running smoothly.

"To your post, soldier," Gege repeated himself more sternly. "I will call if I need anything. Please tell anyone who might want to enter that I am not to be disturbed."

"Yes, Lord Gege," the soldier bowed and closed the door. More running feet could be heard approaching, and the slightest sound of muffled voices raised in panic and worry could be heard through the metal walls. Gege allowed himself a smile at the loyalty of his people. It served to prove to him that he was in the right in this war against the old regimes.

"I thought you were just a simple monk," the shadow-shape in the corner spoke, its voice soft and childish. "When did you become 'Lord' Gege?"

"My men have begun to refer to me as such of late," Gege replied as he bent over to pick up his chair. "Would you care to sit? There are several cushions, as I'm sure you have noticed. We could discuss our business over some tea, like civilized acquaintances."

"But I'm not civilized," the part of the shadow that appeared to be a head tilted to the side slightly. It was a gesture filled with childish innocence, but Gege could feel the ever-present malice hiding beneath the creature's voice. He took a seat, and gestured for the shadow-creature to approach him. Not that he was ordering it—he wasn't positive he would survive giving it an order. But he always felt unnerved talking to the shadows, so he had started asking it to come out so he could talk to it more easily.

The thing's shadow-leg rose, and the foot set itself down within the light cast by the candle. It immediately turned into a bare human limb, pale skin tinted red by the candle's flame. Its body swung forward as the other leg rose up, and the shadow-creature entered the light.

Again, Gege shivered. He would never get used to seeing that transition from shadow to skin and cloth. The being resolved itself into a young boy, perhaps five or six, with short brown hair and large, amber-gold eyes. It was clothed in a sleeveless shirt and a simple pair of pants, both red, with a yellow sash wrapped around its waist. Tucked into the folds of the sash was a simple dagger. For a moment, it—the shadow-being, the boy—simply stood there, on the edge of the light, regarding Gege with cold, hard eyes.

"You should sleep more," the child observed. "You look very tired."

"I have to run the world," Gege shifted his gaze from the child-thing's face. "There's a lot of work to be done. I've appointed regents for different areas, but so many things require my attention still. Perhaps if the Avatar would accept that the Tóngyī is the only true solution for permanent, lasting peace, I would not be so overworked…but…"

"Avatar Huo will never accept your ideals, as I've said," the child-thing sniffed. "He is too infatuated with the concept of Four Nations, balancing the world. I've told you, if you want an Avatar to rule, you need to kill this one and find the next so you can raise him or her to the job."

"You're just a child," Gege scowled. "I find it hard to accept advice coming from your mouth while you look like that, especially since you shouldn't know a thing about killing or death in the first place."

"Why shouldn't I know about death? I'm dead," the boy smirked. "Your people killed me, remember? And my friend, and my father, and my…mother…" Seeing the brief look of pain that flickered across Gege's face, the child-thing threw back its head and laughed. "You really were in love with her, weren't you? Too bad she didn't marry you. My sister and I would have been better off if she had. And my sister wouldn't have had that…" and its face twisted into a look of disgust, "that…_woman_…following her around everywhere, taking her attention away from me."

"And the Avatar," Gege reminded him. "I have to wonder if that's the only reason you want him dead…he stole more of your sister's precious time."

"Shut up!" The boy hissed, holding up its hand. A tendril of shadow followed its motion, and sliced Gege's cheek. It was a shallow cut, one that wouldn't bleed longer than a few seconds before stopping, but Gege still winced at the pain. He hadn't meant to upset the thing—it was a valuable ally, despite the circumstances that had brought it to him. But a comment such as that could be met with a laugh one day, and a furious attack the next. Death, it seemed, had proved an unhinging experience for the child.

"I don't suppose you have anything more to tell me on your sister's location?" Gege grimaced, a hand rising to finger the cut. He wouldn't enjoy explaining it to Meiko. At times the girl could worry over him more than a devoted wife. Granted, the devoted part was always there—devotion to the cause, and to him personally. But she had a way of looking at him, of speaking to him, that made him feel like a husband receiving a scolding.

"Nothing," the child admitted. Its expression dropped into a skulk. "Ever since two days ago, when I found myself transported to that room with her and that woman…there's nothing. Whatever sent her away, it's not on our side _or_ the side of those fools my sister has taken up with. I'll find her soon, though. Nothing can keep me apart from her."

"I'll need you to take Meiko and her team with you," Gege commented in what he hoped was an offhand tone. "Meiko was cheated of her kill once, and she won't be happy with me if I allow anyone—or anything, I suppose, in your case—to take it from her."

"It's all the same to me, so long as she dies," the child shrugged. "I'll return tomorrow night to bring them. Be sure they're ready, because I won't wait any longer than I have to. My sister's waiting."

Gege nodded, and hesitated. There was something he had been meaning to ask…but did he really dare say it? Curiosity was eating him alive, but he feared a careless word would set off his "ally" and result in more harm than good.

Oh well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. "I've been wondering," the aging monk began slowly, "just what your motives are for helping my cause." The thing's head tilted again, eyes now wide with an attempt to convey false innocence. What a convincing actor it might have been, if not for those deadened spheres of flesh in its face. "My people killed you. Your death was a necessary thing to ensure our rule, but you don't appear to hold any grudge over it. Furthermore, your abilities in death…they cannot be natural. If they were, many others would return to avenge their murders. So…what are you? You've never given me a straight answer."

"What am I…?" The boy looked thoughtfully up at the ceiling. "Well, I'm a dead little boy." Its lips curled up in a smile. "Does that disturb you, Monk Gege?"

"Yes," Gege admitted. "I remember the one time I saw you alive, and I think…you aren't that child. Not anymore. But the Fire Sages say that anyone who dies wanders the world for a year before they go to the Land of the Dead, where they live in eternal bliss, as they were upon their death. But you're not like one of the ordinary dead—you're still walking the earth, and the Spirit World, a cruel reflection of Song's child. Wouldn't you be disturbed if your sister underwent a similar change?"

"I see…" The child suddenly squeezed its eyes shut. Shadows shot from the dark corners of the room to surround it in a vortex reaching to the ceiling. Gege leaped back, his chair falling over again. One hand came up to shield himself, however futilely that would be when faced with a being like this child-thing. A faint sound, like a multitude of people screaming far away, reached his ears. It brought to mind the worst things Gege had ever seen in his life, the things he found most disgusting and repulsive and inhumane—children begging on the street, destined to die before reaching adulthood; the rich stuffing their faces while orphans gazed at them enviously from the rain outside, wishing for even a crumb of what they saw; Song, Gege's beloved Song, lying dead on the ground of a ballroom in the Earth King's palace, her throat slashed and her stomach punctured by arrows.

Then the vortex died down, and the images died away, leaving Gege reeling. He fell to his knees, clutching his desk for support, trying to resist the lurching in his stomach that demanded he empty it _now_.

"That was barely a fraction of what I could have done to you," a young man's voice commented, dripping with amusement. Gege started, looking up, hand flying to his mouth to keep the bile rising in his throat down. Where the child-thing had stood was a boy in his late teen years, wearing larger versions of the child's clothing. His features, his coloring, even the very expression on his face and the look in his eyes, everything matched the little boy who had been just there. It was as if, in the space of a few seconds, that boy had grown up. "Do you like it? If I disgust you so much as a child, maybe you can handle me better as a man."

Gege waited a moment until he was sure speaking wouldn't result in throwing up, and gingerly removed his hand from his mouth. "Now I'm even more curious," he gasped, "as to what you are."

"Hm. Well, it's a long story," the boy shrugged. "To make it brief, however, two hundred years ago my ancestor Fire Lord Azulon's little brother destroyed a village. In that village lived a young woman who, so far as her neighbors were concerned, was a witch. She was kind and beautiful, and the animals in the nearby forest obeyed her every order, but she despised the Fire Nation for the deaths of her father and brother. My ancestor was afraid of what the witch might be able to do to him, so he decided to burn her at the stake to prevent her from working her evil magic. But the woman was not a witch: rather, she was such a kind and gentle soul that a local guardian spirit had fallen in love with her. That spirit was enraged at her death, and set a curse upon my family for the action ordered by Fire Lord Azulon's younger brother. He would become a rock statue, forbidden from moving or speaking or entering the Spirit World, and all the hatred and suffering of those the Fire Nation killed would form a shadow, to loom over the heads of my ancestors forevermore. Nobody else knew about it but my ancestor, who was found dead in his tent the morning after the girl's death: but ever since that curse was laid, in each generation, a member of my family has been imprisoned, executed, or gone insane."

"Fascinating," Gege murmured, eyes lighting up as he considered the implications of this curse. He never realized it before, but the once pointed out the pattern was obvious. The fall and imprisonment of Fire Lord Ozai, the madness of Princess Azula, the tragedy of Bulaike Village fifty years after the War… "But how does this affect you?"

"Well, even the most powerful of spirits can't make their spells last forever," the boy smiled slightly. "This curse was one of the strongest, but even after two hundred years, it began to fade. What remained of the shadow wanted to finish its work as best it could before it dissipated into nothingness. So it sought out a newly-dead soul on its way to the Land of the Dead, one already subject to its wrath, and by combining itself with that soul it was able to extend its lifespan. Now all that's left is to kill the children of the last Fire Lord, and the spirit's revenge will be complete."

"So…" Gege's eyes widened as he finally grasped the boy's goal.

"I'll admit, what remains of the shadow, what told me all of this, wants nothing more than for me to kill my sister and brother," the boy walked over to the desk and leaned against it, face unreadable. "But what's left of me just wants to be with my sister…forever…" His face lit up. "And since I'm dead, the only way for that to work is if I kill her. So that's what I'm gonna do. Then I'll kill my brother, and send his soul as far away from my sister as possible, and she'll be all mine at last, just like she should have been all along."

His words made Gege uneasy, but who was the leader of the Tóngyī ShÌjiè to spit in the face of such a gift? If this boy could do what Gege knew he could not…if he could kill Li, the last piece of Song that remained in this world…then he could very well have his twisted logic and demented emotions. Maybe this curse had already had a hand in influencing his thoughts before his death, who knew.

Whatever the case was, the universe had once more proved the virtue of Gege's plans by sending such a useful aide. Who was he to deny the universe?

"Tomorrow, then," Gege grunted. His stomach had yet to completely settle, but he slowly straightened his back and climbed to his feet. "I'll have Meiko and her team ready by the time you come."

"Thank you, Monk Gege," the boy gave him a warm smile. Or, it would have been warm if all of his face had been put into it, but no matter how the boy twisted his flesh his eyes remained flat and dead—unless he was speaking of his sister. Then they lit up, and Gege would feel uneasy at the expression on the boy's—now a young man's—face.

"You're welcome…" Gege muttered as the boy stepped into the shadows and disappeared, "Prince Kuzon."

* * *

**Me: Wheee…chapter is done…**

**Li: Yes. Yes it is. And we've yet to find your brain.**

**Me: I hope a zombie didn't eat it…**

**Li: I'm sure one didn't. *to readers* This is the part where I ask for you to submit a review telling us what you liked and disliked about this chapter. Karen cannot improve unless you tell her how to, and she's too out of it right now to possibly be expected to catch errors on her own.**

**Me: IT'S A SQUIRREL!**

**Li: See what I mean? *eyeroll, walks off* Yeees, Karen, it's **_**just**_** a squirrel…it won't try to attack…**

**Me: BUT HOW CAN YOU KNOW?**

**Li: *sigh of frustration, turns head* Hey, isn't that your brain?**

**My Brain: YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE! *runs off***

**Li: Of course... *gives chase***


	33. That

**Me: So, here's the next chapter, as promised. I had a lot of doubts about posting this, but...well, I knew it would happen when it came, and Li agrees that that's likely how it would have gone down. So, here ya go.**

**Li: Karen does not own Hetalia: Axis Powers or Avatar: The Last Airbender. I can't believe she wrote this... /**

* * *

Li rolled over in her warm, comfy bed in Finland's house, trying to ignore that achy feel all over her body. She groaned as her eyelids were hit with early morning sunlight and, using the minimum energy, pulled a blanket over her head. It was a common misconception that all Firebenders were "up with the sun." Oh, how untrue. Yes, a Firebender always knew when the sun was out, and its energy commonly helped to wake them, but that didn't mean they _had_ to get out of bed. Especially if they had been active late into the night: extra energy or no, when you've only had a few hours of sleep, you're not exactly getting up without a fight.

Why did she have to feel so horrible this morning, though? It felt like her body was shorter on energy than usual, and there was a small cramp in her stomach. Actually, cramp might not be the best word for it: it felt like something inside of her was…

Oh…

Li bolted out of bed, grabbed an unpacked suitcase, and rushed into the bathroom. Yes, her suspicions were quite correct.

Now what?

* * *

Finland looked up from his book, worried, to check the clock again. It was already early afternoon, but Li hadn't appeared from her room yet. The Nordic Nation was reluctant to disturb her—what if she didn't want to get up yet?—but not even Greece slept this long. Actually, technically he did, but he spread it out over the course of a day, waking up roughly every hour or when someone spoke to him. In any case, Li had gone to bed early, so she should be awake now.

Well…he might as well take a quick peek at her room…just in case she was sick because of the weather or travel or anything…

His phone chose that moment to ring. Hanatamago, who had been curled up on the couch next to Finland, perked his ears up. The Nordic picked his phone up off the side table and checked the caller ID—Sweden. Finland flipped his phone open and pressed it to his ear.

"Good afternoon, Sve," he greeted genially. "Great timing, I was about to leave my phone unattended. What did you want to talk about?"

"J'pan," came the answer. "H's react'r bl'w. W'nted t' know how y'rs is."

"Huh? Fukushima was a while ago, wasn't it? And don't worry, Olkiluoto is the safest nuclear reactor there is!" Finland laughed. "Besides, don't you use more nuclear power than me anyways? Worry about yourself more!"

"St'll, ar'n't y' b'lding a new 'un?" Sweden asked.

"Aw, come on, Sve, you know we're taking all possible precautions with OT3," Finland scolded. "This talk couldn't have waited until you'd come over? If you're so worried, bring me some of that yummy bread you made on Norge's birthday! We could have it at dinner!"

"B't I j'st saw a n'ws sh'w on Fukushima," Sweden replied. "They s'y 't's w'rse'n Chernobyl."

"I know," Finland sighed. "We've all been doing our best to help Japan. But you shouldn't worry about me, Sve. Really. _I'm_ not the Nation who uses the most nuclear energy." That last statement was a clear warning, although Finland's general un-scariness must have made it fall a little flat. Still, he hoped Sve got the point.

"F'ne," Sweden spoke gruffly. "See y' at d'nner."

"Bye, Sve," Finland nodded, even though his friend couldn't see him. The Nordic closed the phone, and paused. What had he been about to do before Sve called, again?

Oh, that's right. Check on Li. Finland marked his place in the book, then set it down carefully next to his phone. "I'll be right back, Hanatamago," Finland promised his dog. Hanatamago raised his head, tilted it slightly, and gave a soft yip. Assured his dog understood him, Finland stood up and went over to his stairs.

Here he hesitated. If Li was just sleeping in, it would be rude to wake her up. She could be reading, if she had any books in her bags, or writing a letter to another Nation. Then again, how many people wrote letters these days? What did Li even write in, the Roman alphabet? Arabic? Well, she could be…or what if she was just taking her time deciding what to wear? Not that she had many options…but she could be! How could he know what she was doing if he didn't check? Maybe if he pressed his ear to the door…would that be okay? Yeah, that would probably be okay.

Finland had reached the top of the stairs before he heard his phone ringing again downstairs. A dilemma—check on Li quickly, or get the phone first? Well, Li could just be sleeping or something…best to get the phone, wasn't it? Back down the stairs Finland went, wondering who could be calling him. Not Sweden—Sve wouldn't call again so soon. It could be Austria, with news of the repairs on his house. Or maybe Hungary, or Lithuania, checking up on Li. If that was the case, he might need to disturb Li anyways…and here he was. Now, what did caller ID say…ah.

"Hello England," the Nordic greeted. "This is Finland speaking."

"Hello Finland," England replied. "I wanted to speak to you about the meeting on the fifth. How is your report on the new nuclear power plant coming? Did you take those recommendations of mine under consideration?"

"Yes, my experts have been looking them over," Finland assured his friend. "Did you really call just to talk about that, though?"

There was an uncomfortable silence on the other end, and England sighed. "No, I didn't call just to speak about a nuclear power plant. I…Finland, ever since March, I've had this nagging feeling at the back of my head. It's like…like when you move from someplace with a low altitude to someplace with a higher altitude. Does that make sense at all…? Oh, just…I need to know if you've noticed anything different recently."

"Different?" Finland thought for a moment. "No, not really. You should ask Norge, he would be better with that sort of thing. His troll friends know a lot."

"Well…yes, but…" England tched. "They don't respect my fairies very much. Norway _or_ his trolls. I try not to discuss magical matters with them. So I was wondering if you had noticed something, or…maybe, if Norway mentioned…?"

"Oh, should I call Norway and ask him?" Finland suggested.

"No! No, that won't be necessary, I can figure it out on my own, I was just, you know, wondering if a normal Nation like you had sensed anything," England covered hastily. "I mean, with the explosions going on earlier this month, at Russia's and Austria's, I've been a little concerned, and then the tsunami and this nuclear meltdown…it just has me worried. Well, not for you guys, of course, but it'd be a problem if anything happened in my house. So, that's all, bye!"

Finland heard the dial tone, and closed his phone. England could be so weird sometimes.

Now, he should check on Li. A glance at the clock told him it was really late to be sleeping, even if you were tired. After this he'd have to start on dinner. Maybe he should make mämmi…no, even the other Nordics told him it looked disgusting. Denmark had once asked if it was really Hanatamago's "business." Definitely no mämmi…it was supposed to be a specialty for Easter anyways.

Up the stairs, down the hall, turn, and he was at the guest room. "Li?" Finland knocked. "Are you all right? It's afternoon, and you haven't come out. Is something wrong?"

"Finland?" That was Li's voice—but not as loud as it should have been. Was she in the bathroom? "Uh, are any of your neighbors girls?"

"No, why?" Finland frowned at the odd question.

"Er…well, if there aren't any nearby, could you maybe call Hungary and ask her to come over here? Please?" Li sounded desperate. What could this be about?

"Sure, I'll go call her now," Finland replied, puzzled. "But is something wrong?"

"Please just call her! Ask her to come over right away!" Li shouted. Something _must_ be wrong. Finland turned around and dashed towards the stairs.

He was almost to the table with his phone when the phone rang as it received a call. Finland quickly picked it up and checked caller ID—it was Austria. Flipping the phone open, the Finn pressed the device to his ear and began to speak rapidly.

"Austria, I'm sorry, I don't have much time, Li told me to call Hungary right away and I'm very sorry but I don't know why but it sounded urgent so can you please wait until I've called Hungary? Thank you, bye!" And Finland hung up, and quickly dialed Hungary's number.

She answered on the fifth ring. "Hello, this is Hungary, how may I help you?"

"Hungary! It's Finland! Li wants you to come over right away!"

* * *

Hungary sat in her seat on the jet plane, worried about just what could have Li demanding her to come without any other explanation. After getting Finland's call, she'd immediately alerted her government that she needed to get to Finland as soon as possible. They were very grudging, but allowed her the use of a small private plane, despite this being "personal business." Admittedly, it was personal, but Li was important business. A girl who appeared mysteriously near a place where the Nations were congregating…that at least deserved investigation, didn't it? Germany and Austria had told her at Italy's party that they were conducting an investigation into places Li might have come from, but they had no leads yet. Maybe, while in Finland, Hungary could get Li to let something slip…

The plane hit a patch of turbulence, momentarily jarring Hungary from her thoughts. "Sorry, miss," the pilot apologized. "Don't you worry, we'll be at Helsinki in no time."

"Thank you," Hungary replied absently. She looked out the window. It was evening now—Sweden would be at Finland's house for dinner before picking up Li. Well, if something was wrong, Li might be staying another night in Helsinki. Hopefully Hungary could sort out whatever this was immediately, and be on her way home in a train before midnight.

Hungary wondered how Germany and Austria's search was going. She had received an update when she told her ex-husband about Li's slip-up on the way to Ukraine, but that was nearly a week ago now. Surely they had discovered something since then! Maybe she could stop by Germany's on her way home, and see what they had. If there was time.

Her stomach lurched as the plane angled downwards, towards a lit runway. She shifted in her seat and prepared for the landing.

* * *

"Hungary! Thank goodness! Li's refusing to leave the guest room!" Finland gasped as the female Nation appeared at his door. "Sve and I started to eat without her, but I'm keeping her food warm in case you can get her out quickly. Oh, I should make you a plate, shouldn't I, since you're here…"

"Don't worry, I'll go talk to her," Hungary assured the Nordic. "Some food would be lovely, I haven't eaten since breakfast. Work and all, then this…anyways, you said Li's in the guest room?"

"Uh-huh," Finland nodded. "I'm not sure what to do…" His lip quivered slightly as he spoke, a clear indicator of his worry. Hungary didn't respond, but headed for the stairs.

Li's door was firmly shut, but the knob turned under Hungary's hand. "Li?" the Nation called. "It's Hungary. What did you need me for? Can I come in?"

"S-sure," Li answered from inside. Hungary opened the door and slipped into the room, closing the door before looking for Li. The girl wasn't in the room—but a partially-open door off to one side seemed to lead to the bathroom, so Li was likely in there.

"Um…Li, what's the matter?" Hungary asked. Her eyebrows knit in confusion. What was going…?

"Er…well, I…um…" Li stuttered, then took a deep breath. "I…need to know…what you use here…for when a girl…when she…you know…every month…" Her embarrassment was clear in her words, and Hungary would have bet that Li's face was red. The situation clicked, and Hungary nearly laughed in relief. Here she was, worried that it was something serious—but it was just _that_.

"Oh, you got your period?" Hungary's lips curved up in amusement. "That's it? I'll tell Finland to go and get you some tampons, just wait a second…"

"No, don't tell him!" Li sounded panicked. Hungary, who had been walking towards the door, paused. "I…it's just…well…Finland is…he's a guy."

"Yes, I knew that already, but—" Hungary began before stopping herself. "Is that why you didn't just tell him when it began?"

"Yeah…"

"Then I'll get you some tampons, and we won't speak a word of this to Finland or Sweden," Hungary promised. "Oh, wait…does the Fire Nation use tampons?"

"What are tampons?" Li inquired. Clearly the Fire Nation did not have tampons. Very well.

"They're sort of like…sponges," Hungary tried to think of how to describe a tampon. Female Nations rarely had their period, unlike normal human females, who usually had them once a month. If a female Nation was on her period, her people's attitudes were usually what might be described as "PMS-y," with constant changes of political views or the threat of attacking others. Some female Nations, like Liechtenstein, had never had a period before in their life, the lucky ducks.

"Sponges…?" Li prompted, and Hungary realized she'd fallen silent while thinking about female Nations and their period. That was certainly a first.

"Yes, like sponges…and you…you put them up the…er…tell me what the Fire Nation usually uses?" Hungary sought for a way out of that explanation. She could be very matter-of-fact, but when it came down to explaining the actual mechanics of how to use a tampon, something inside of her just chickened out.

"We usually use clean rags, or for the higher class, cloth strips that can be easily washed clean," Li answered. "Er…when you 'put them up,' do you…do you mean what I think you…"

"Yes," Hungary said immediately. "I think you understand. Should I just get you some pads, then?"

"Okay, fine, but…" Li trailed off. "You…do people here really…?"

"Yes."

Li was silent for a short while before speaking again. "I'm not exactly sure who would want to do that, but I guess people here grow up with the idea. Uh, I sort of got my…you know…they got dirty…" Definitely blushing.

"Put them in the bathtub and turn on the hot water," Hungary advised. "I'll go buy you some pads now. Wait there—I'll tell Finland not to bother you. I promise I won't be long."

"Okay. Hurry!" Li urged as Hungary exited the guest bedroom and went downstairs. A quick word to Finland on not disturbing Li and asking where the nearest department store was, and the female Nation was out the door. If she hurried, she could get back and eat with Li, Finland, and Sweden before booking a train ticket to Budapest…

* * *

**Me: So...you see why I wasn't so sure about posting this... /**

**Li: I can't believe you posted a chapter about me getting my period. It's probably spot-on, but...seriously? It's my freakin' period! Isn't it supposed to be private?**

**Me: You're a fanfiction character. You don't get privacy.**

**Li: True...**

**Me: In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, apologize if you were offended by the content, and wish you all a good day.**

**Li: And be sure to review and tell her that invasions of privacy are wrong! Or just constructive criticism, that'd work too...**

**Me: Plus she gets a cookie for each review!**


	34. April Fool's

**Me: All right, here's my rendition of April 1****st****, and France's little prank that day. I couldn't find the second part—or at least, a translated second part—so I couldn't include it. If memory serves, it involves Prussia and Germany?**

**Li: Karen does not own Avatarverse or Hetaliaverse.**

* * *

April Fool's Day. The day most Nations had first learned to fear around the year 2007. It was the day you could lie to others without having any dire consequences, save maybe a few bruised egos here and there. On the first of April, people played pranks on each other without fear of retribution, excepting a prank or two on them. These pranks ranged from simple plays on words or spontaneous tricks to elaborate schemes chock-full of confusion and hilarity.

Schemes such as the one France had in mind.

It was brilliant, really. Even came with a built-in safety net in case any of the other Nations took offense at his plan. Spain had planted the seeds when he'd told France that he wanted to take silly pictures with everyone. From there, things just fell into place in the devious mind of the French Nation.

Ah, and there was England, looking all cute in a short nurse's outfit. France walked up behind him, a smug grin on his face.

"Ah, why do I have to wear such…aaaah!" England grumbled. He was blushing furiously—how cute!

"Ohonhonhonhon…it is April Fool's, after all!" France chortled. This was wonderful! Even if everything else he had planned failed, it was all worth it just to see England in a short pink nurse's outfit!

"Not at all true…it's somebody's bloody fault!" England turned on his fellow Nation, scowling. "I'll kill you when it's done!"

"Mais non—this is you and me we're talking about!" France protested, poking England in the chest. His other hand produced a photo from [you don't want to know where], and he held it up. A falsely innocent expression spread over his face as he added, "If you help me for the whole day I won't be sending out this photo~."

"When did you take that? Give it back!" England shouted in panic, snatching at the photo. France moved his arm to keep it away, not allowing his face to show the satisfaction he was feeling. How predictable his old enemy could be.

"Don't rush," France couldn't help but taunt. "I'll give it to you if you work hard for the day!"

England, apparently, was not happy with that compromise. "Take the Britannia Kiiick!" He roared, lunging at France.

"I won't give it to you!" France protested as he dodged the attack. For purely preemptive measures, should England attack again, the naked Nation—well, almost naked, as a rose was censoring his privates—tackled his long-time enemy.

Things just devolved from there.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere nearby, Spain was enjoying a tomato.

"Tomatoes are good…" he smiled happily to himself, trying to remember where the jar of marmite in his hand had come from. Oh well. He had a tomato in his hand, and life was good. Spain heard steps behind him, and turned to see Romano walking along. Ever eager to spend time with his old charge, he waved and called, "Romano!"

"What the hell is up with those clothes, you bastard," Romano muttered, heading over to Spain. Spain glanced down at his outfit—a "Butler in the Buff" outfit he'd heard England wore when drunk. It was basically a short apron, a collar with a tie, and some shirt cuffs on the wrists. There was something wrong with it…? Or was Romano talking about the bunny ears?

Well, he had to prank Romano, since it was April Fool's Day. "Something cool will happen if you stick your face in this hole!" Spain suggested, pointing to the back of a cutout. He'd set a few of them up in the plaza, with cameras manned by some teenagers who just thought Spain was an eccentric businessman with some crazy friends.

"Guess I have no choice but to do it, damnit," Romano grumbled. He walked over to the cutout with Spain and stuck his head through. "…So? Just what the hell is supposed to be interesting here, you asshole?"

A camera flashed, and Romano looked down at the cutout. Two tomato-headed people holding hands, with a sign saying "Tomato Country," greeted his eyes. "What the hell."

* * *

"So what do you want me to do?" England asked France after they'd stopped fighting and straightened themselves out. "I just want to get this over with."

"I've got a job here that you can do!" France replied, pulling out a letter. "I've got a request that says, 'I want to see everyone as kids,'…that's something that even I can't grant. You can just say 'Hogyora!' and turn them into kids like normal, right? Hop to it!" France's made-up magic word was accompanied by a dramatic sweep of his arm. England remained silent. "Hm? England? Are you listening to me?"

"So," England slowly grinned, and pulled out a stick with a star on one end, "I can make _everyone_ little, right? _That includes you?_" It could have been France's imagination, but a dark aura began to coalesce around the island Nation.

"Ah…!" France realized his danger. "Crap…hold on! Aaaargh!"

A short ways off, Thailand was playing with his pet elephant, blissfully unaware of the screams coming from behind a row of trees to his left.

"Get back here and hand over that picture!" England roared, chasing the newly de-aged France.

"Uwaaah! Someone! Someone help me!" Child-France screamed, a passing bird briefly providing the required censor for passing children. "You damn pervert!" A passerby heard the screaming, and stopped.

"Gotcha!" England cried triumphantly, finally capturing France. "You have to behave yourself now!"

"Who'd behave for you?" France shouted, a few tears welling up in his eyes on childish instinct. He couldn't help it—having a child's body meant a few more throwbacks to childhood, like instinctive tears in response to pain. It stung him that England could do this, but what could France do? Maybe his plan wasn't exactly foolproof after all…

"Hey! Don't you know it's not nice to bully little kids?" A familiar voice shouted. Whoever it was began to run towards England and the abused France.

"Eh…?" England's head jerked up in horror. "What? This voice…it can't be…"

"Help!" France managed to look angelic despite the tears streaming from his eyes. Kids rarely looked angelic when crying, what with the snot running from their nose and their faces turning red and scrunching up. "Big brother is being tormented by him!"

"…Huh?" America paused to stare. "Is that England and…um, F-France? Why is France so small and why are you in that getup England?"

"Why the bloody hell are you dressed up like that, too?" England started, staring at America's Butler in the Buff uniform. He had added an "I 3 NY" iron-on patch to the lower left corner of the apron, for whatever reason, and was wearing a pair of…were those bear ears?

"What about you?" America shot back, looking scared. England stared at him, and the younger Nation figured he might as well explain. "Well…this morning I received these clothes along with a letter. The letter said I had to wear these clothes and go to the plaza up ahead or the sender would release my most embarrassing picture to the public…I'd gladly wear this outfit than let anyone else see that photo!" America let out a breath, radiating depression.

England, doing an excellent job of sensing the mood, decided to try and cheer America up. "Why are you getting depressed?" he laughed, admittedly forced. "That outfit matches you pretty well. It's fine!" America's depression only intensified. England wasn't the best person at cheering others up.

"Canada received a letter too, but didn't seem all that bothered by it," he muttered gloomily. Well, that did fit with Canada's personality—and really, just how embarrassing a photo could there possibly be of Canada anyways?

"How composed…" England observed, likely in response to his own mental image of what Canada's reaction must have been.

"I've heard everything!" A voice called from above them. England and America looked up to see China sitting in some branches above them, holding a letter and…looking quite girly. He wore a close-fitting qipao, and has his hair down from its usual ponytail. One leg extended before him elegantly, smooth and feminine. "I, too, have received a letter with the exact same thing written on it!" China continued, unaware that he was not being heard. "Although the clothes I received are much different from yours, America…Honestly, who's doing all of this stupid stuff on such a big scale…seriously, how did the sender get t-that embarrassing photo of me?" A deep blush mantled China's cheeks, which, when combined with the girlish clothing and hairdo, did not help to prove his masculinity. The oldest known living Nation jumped out of the tree and concluded with, "For the time being, even though we know that it's a trap we should go to the place…"

"Mm…yeah…okay…" America mumbled, staring at China. That graceful jump was not helping…why did he have to be a man?

"Ah! I'm so glad!" A voice came from the ground now, and everyone looked down to Russia peeking out of a manhole. "I thought it was just me who received this letter and clothes as a joke! Everyone is in the same situation as me." Relief was clear in the northern Nation's voice, but went mostly unnoticed by the others.

"Whoa! Russia!" England exclaimed. "How'd you get there?" Behind China and England, America was laughing at the sight. Russia peeking out from a manhole, with the cover balanced on his head, wasn't the most serious of situations.

"Hurry up and get out of there, aru!" China demanded.

"I'm embarrassed…" Russia sunk a bit deeper into the manhole, face turning red.

* * *

It wasn't just the Allies who had received such letters. In Budapest, where Austria was visiting Hungary until the next meeting, he had just opened an envelope to find the demands to go to a certain plaza and a picture. "W-what is this picture?" the aristocrat blinked at it in surprise. "I mean, it is embarrassing but…" He was failing to notice Hungary sidling over, doing her best to get a better view of the picture while her cheeks colored pink.

"Haha look at this face that I'm making!" Finland was laughing to a distressed Hanatamago, both looking at the picture Finland had received. Behind them, Sweden was starting to feel a dark aura coalesce around him.

In Ankara, Greece and Turkey were fighting over the letters. Like everything else, when something bad happened to either one of them they immediately suspected this other. "That picture…is it you, the culprit?" Greece challenged his former ruler. "It's super embarrassing!" They had locked hands, and were using brute strength to try and push the other over.

"What do you think you're saying? Dumbass!" Turkey retorted. "The culprit is you! Taking weird pictures…!"

"Hey—! Stop it already!" Lithuania was pleading with Poland. The blond Nation had stolen Lithuania's embarrassing picture, and the Baltic state was weakly protesting against the theft. "Give it back—!"

Taiwan giggled as she looked at her embarrassing photo. "It's a very well taken interesting picture," she decided. A maid's dress hung on the wall behind her, completely ignored by the female Nation. It had arrived in the mail with the photo Taiwan was currently laughing over. The chances of her wearing it depended on whether or not she found the thought entertaining enough.

"Germany! Germany!" Italy called, bursting in on his friend. The Italian wore a "I 3 pasta" t-shirt, and he had a piece of paper clutched in one hand. He held the paper out proudly. "It's the embarrassing picture of me I received today!"

"What?" Germany started. "Don't show it off!"

"Are you really okay dressed like that, you idiot?" Romano asked Spain with a sigh. The two were waiting in the plaza for everyone else to arrive, and at some point a bunch of animals had shown up. A dog, a cat, a turtle and rabbit, a whale, that weird thing America called an alien—wasn't its name Tony or something?

"It feels great with the great weather and the great breeze!" Spain assured his old charge. Pierre, France's bird, was sitting on his head. Another bird was flying just overhead, but neither Nation gave it any attention.

* * *

England glared at child-France, who was rubbing his hands together nervously. Noticing England's gaze, he did the only sensible thing for a child being stared at by a man in a short nurse's outfit to do—he ran. "Ah! You tosser!" The island Nation shouted. "I knew you were behind this! Get your arse back here!"

"Eh? What do you mean?" America looked after the fleeing France. "Don't tell me the culprit is…"

"W-wait up everyone!" Russia called, stepping out of the manhole to reveal…a very short dirndl. "…Ah."

"Th-that certainly is very embarrassing, aru…!" China noted, looking away for the sake of his sanity. Russia in a short dirndl: it wasn't exactly conducive to a healthy mind, especially not if one viewed the subject for more than thirty consecutive seconds at a time.

England and America, meanwhile, had given chase. But despite the fact that becoming a child had shortened his legs, France was easily outdistancing them. "Bloody hell, you can't even compare it to before he's running away so fast!" England gasped.

"I'm totally confident in my running skills but I can't even catch up to him at all!" America agreed, panting as they stopped for a break.

"What the hell, aru!" China wheezed. "Even though you guys are so young you're so sloppy, aru!" The older Nation was leaning heavily on a branch he'd picked up somewhere, looking like he was about to die.

"You're one to talk! You're out of breath too!" England got out before he had to gasp for more air.

Not one to pursue a pointless plan of attack, China set his jaw and glared ahead at the disappearing figure of France. "Get out of my way, aru! Leave it to China!" He shouted to the other Allies. "China special move!"

* * *

In Berlin, Germany had just opened a package from an unknown sender to find several extremely embarrassing photos of himself…and a maid's outfit. Seeing as it was April 1st, and France's April escapades were legendary, it was a fair guess what the dress was intended for. Memories of being forced into a maid cosplay with cat ears flickered through the Nation's mind.

Peering around a nearby corner was Prussia. "Psh…" He snickered. "West, what the hell is that?"

* * *

China was speaking on his cell phone as England and America watched on in confusion. Russia was still hiding. "Hello! Is your health doing okay? Long time no see," China blabbed.

"What's he doing?" America whispered to England.

"Shh!" England snapped. "I'm sure it's some sort of secret Chinese technique!"

"Ooh, is he gonna bust out some crazy martial arts like Jackie Chan?" America grinned. "That'd be sweet!"

"He—what's that?" England pointed to a mass of people quickly approaching. They were a fair ways off, but getting larger by the second. China waved to them with a smile on his face. After a minute, they were close enough to see that it was a group of Chinese people, carrying a bound and gagged child-France. Acting like this was perfectly normal, China greeted and thanked them, accepting the child-France and waving them off.

"There you have it!" China turned to England and America. "The Chinese secret technique! It's called 'You're meant to wait on the Chinese!'"

"Woah! That's awesome!" America started to laugh. "Good job, dude!" England was staring at China in confusion. Why had China said to get out of the way…?

* * *

Li trailed behind Denmark, wondering what in the world they were doing on an island in the middle of a huge ocean. They were walking towards a house—rather, Li was walking towards the house. Denmark was sprinting. The Fire Nation girl was somewhat interested in her surroundings: the landscape was very similar to the islands in the Fire Nation archipelago. Had… "Iceland" been formed by volcanic eruptions as well?

Up ahead, Denmark reached the front door of the small house and burst in. He shouted something, but Li—who was roughly fifty feet away, and not really paying attention—couldn't make out the words. She took her time walking up the road, enjoying her surroundings. Excepting the fact that she needed to wear a heavy coat, and that there was snow everywhere, she could almost be on one of the outlying islands of her home Nation. And who knew, maybe there was some sort of correlation between the Fire Nation in her world and this island!

She reached the door, which Denmark had left open, and took the time to knock before entering. Maybe Denmark had already invited them in, but it never hurt to be polite. Voices were coming from a room nearby, talking about some sort of holiday that took place today. "April Fool's"…?

Denmark appeared in a doorway. "Hey Li!" He said brightly. "There are flying cows in the sky!"

"Huh?" Li jumped backwards, eyes automatically going towards the nearest window. "Where?"

"He's just playing an April Fool's Day prank on you," another Nation appeared behind Denmark. "He tried the same thing on me. I'm sorry if Dan startled you, he just needs to learn a lesson."

"So…there are no flying cows nearby?" Li eyed the window, just in case. Who knew what sort of devilish creatures there were here? Flying boars existed in Li's world, so why couldn't flying cows exist here?

"Nah, cows can't _really_ fly," Denmark laughed. "I just said that as a joke. It's like seeing a pig fly or somethin'!"

Li stared at him for a moment before turning away. The Nations were insane. How could they not know that pigs flew?

* * *

"Come on, little France! Just have some sense and we'll take the pictures back," America encouraged the child-France. He was rather entertained by how small France was right now. So small…

"It's not between you and me, let's take it easy, shall we?" France attempted to get some leniency from his captors, with little effect.

"If you give back the photos and explain why you did such a stupid thing, I'll turn you back," England offered. He pulled out his wand and held it in front of him. America laughed.

"What's with that cute little toy~!" He crowed, eyes scrunching up. England could be so weird sometimes.

"No, look…" France began before trailing off. Everyone looked at him expectantly. "It…it's true that every year, big brother is always involved in something, but this year it's seriously not me…"

"Eh?" England frowned in puzzlement. "Oi…if it's not you, then who's behind it?"

"I'm not sure why they're do—" France began, but was interrupted as Spain—in his Butler in the Buff outfit—suddenly stood up from a bush behind the child. "**—ing!**" France's eyes widened in shock, and America quickly snatched him away from the other Nation. Spain swayed a little, face unreadable.

"You…you're the one who did this…?" England stared at his old enemy.

"N…yeah…it was me," Spain admitted, doing a very good "stereotypical scary killer from an American movie" impression.

"Is he joking?" England muttered to America. "Why would that wanker do such a thing to us?"

"We both can only guess," America answered, glaring at Spain and adjusting his collar. He was prepared for a fight, if it came to that—an epic fight with lots of reality-defying moves and awesome sound effects. Because if Spain was acting like a scary killer from a movie, America could and would act like an epic hero from a movie!

"…because of that…" Spain gave everyone a hard look, "…I'm _**super pissed**_ right now." He took in a deep breath. America and England tensed, ready for an attack, and… "The place where we were supposed to meet is different! Where Romano and I have been waiting all this time!" Spain proclaimed, pointing a finger at everyone. A forced grin crossed his face. "And you all look so much more interesting in your costumes!"

"Eh…" England, now thoroughly confused, wobbled a bit where he stood. America made a "hm?" noise.

"But I'm so glad you managed to come you lot!" Spain continued, oblivious to their reactions.

"What?" England stared. "It wasn't some kind of conspiracy or a planned revenge?"

"Spain! You'll explain what this all means!" China demanded.

"Eh? Did I forget to write it in the letter?" Spain smiled a bit more authentically, and launched into his explanation. "It's April Fool's today, so I thought let's do something unusual. So I made the plan to gather everybody and shoot some absurd photos. France did a great job with writing all the letters! What did you write in those letters to gather so many people?" The Mediterranean Nation turned to his neighbor.

"So that means, you made the plan and France was responsible for the letters," England summed it up. He was getting a better idea of how things had gone. Spain was the mastermind of the whole scheme, and France was the accomplice who had twisted an innocent and well-intentioned idea into this.

"Yup, what's the matter with it?" Spain laughed.

Nobody had yet noticed Picardy hiding in the bushes with a camera, muttering about how France was such a slave driver.

"Let's have a chat, shall we?" England turned to glare at child-France.

"Pieeeeeerreeee!" France screamed. A bird flew from nowhere, whizzing past France and cutting the ropes that held the small Nation with its beak while managing to prevent harming France at all. Clearly they had been practicing this, and it said something about France that he had anticipated it was a skill he would want Pierre to have. Leaping up, France produced the pictures from nowhere (or you-don't-want-to-know-where) and winked at the other Allies and Spain. "Big brother knew you wouldn't come if I just call you," he confessed. "I'll get rid of the pictures, don't worry! Au revoir! Today was so much fu—ah!"

It was at that moment, as France was saying his parting words, that a gust of warm wind smelling of flowers—not unusual in Madrid, where the whole debacle had taken place, but odd for early April regardless—blew the pictures out of France's hand.

"Aaaah! The embarrassing pictures!" America screamed.

"Aiyaa, my dignity!' China clutched at his head, seeing the pictures start to scatter. "Everybody, go after them!"

"France, what the hell are you…hurry up and grab them!" England roared, catching child-France by the shoulder as the smaller Nation attempted to use the distraction to flee.

"Stop it, that's embarrassing!" Russia cried, torn between hiding his outfit and helping catch the pictures.

* * *

In April of 2007, the great god of fear was born. In April of 2011, he commenced his greatest attack to date.

Let us pray that 2012 was not predicted by the Mayans to be the end of the world because of what the great god of fear would do in that year.

* * *

**Me: And there you have it, April Fool's!**

**Li: You people seriously don't have flying cows?**

**Me: Don't be absurd.**

**Li: You people are the absurd ones, with your freaky animals that're just one thing... Readers, send in your reviews, because Karen cannot improve her work without feedback.**


	35. Nekotalia

**Me: Aaaaargh.**

**Li: She's sick. Don't mind her. Just having a little breakdown because of the difficulty she's having breathing right now. **

**Me: Blaaaargh…**

**Li: If you ignore her she'll stop freaking out and act sane. That's what I do.**

**Me: Uuuurgh…**

**Li: Karen does not own Hetalia or Avatar, only the concept of this story and all noncanon characters within. Please review this story to tell her what you liked, disliked, found terribly stupid, etc. She cannot improve her work without your input. Have a nice day, and please beware catching a cold.**

**Me: I feel like crap…aaaaargh…**

**Li: That's nice. Now stop being a baby and get writing!**

* * *

Li carried two of her bags into England's house, as England carried the third. After two days spent with Denmark, preceded by six days with the other Nordics, Li was looking forward to what promised to be nearly a week at England's home, in his capital city of London. Admittedly, four of those days would be spent helping with the Nations' meeting at a nearby "event center," but Li could use with some work. She'd heard from Hungary that Austria would be giving her a paycheck at the meeting, despite Li barely doing anything. While Li was fine with getting free money, something inside of her recoiled at the thought of not earning it through hard work. Where that part had come from, Li was not sure. It was a pretty stupid part, because Li had been getting everything handed to her practically since her birth. There should be no issue with the whole situation.

Yet, there was an issue. Li had thought about it earlier on the plane, but been unable to find a reason for it to be on her mind so much. When she was younger, she'd been somewhat spoiled—Li had no problems admitting it. Being the legitimate daughter of the Fire Lord was pretty good for getting whatever you wanted. Ru had done her best to alleviate it, but come on: if you raise a child with everything she wants, she'll expect life to stay the same forever.

"Are you hungry?" England asked Li, holding the door open for her.

"Huh?" Li blinked and looked up at him. "Oh. Yeah. Should I try to cook something? I might need a little help with what some of the ingredients are, but if it comes to it I can at least make a salad or boil some water for tea."

"No no, you're my guest," England shook his head. "We'll take your things to your room, and I'll cook something while you settle in. I'm afraid you're taking the smallest guest room—I always let America, Canada, Seychelles, India, Philippines, Australia, Japan, and China stay at my house when there's a meeting, and they all have specific rooms they prefer, so you've got the only one they don't use."

"That's fine," Li assured her host. "I understand. Will you need any help preparing their rooms?"

"No, I have a cleaning lady that comes twice a week. She'll be along tomorrow to prepare them," England placed Li's suitcase on the floor in the entryway and took the two Li was carrying. "If you could wait in the living room for a bit while I make some dinner, I'll have curry ready before you know it. Should you care to read…er, which language did you speak? There should be a small selection of non-English novels in one of my studies. I could bring them out for you, if you would like."

"What's English?" Li felt foolish for having to ask, but she honestly did not know what England was talking about. Well, come to think of it, the words sounded similar…English, England…

"It's the language that developed in my home over the centuries, derived from Saxon and Latin—" England paused as he saw his guest's clueless face. "English is what we speak at my home. America and Australia also speak it, as does Canada, but Canada also uses that bloody frog's language so I'm not sure if he counts or not. Going by your expression, I'll gather you don't speak it."

"Well, no, I don't," Li admitted. "I'm new to the whole 'multiple ways of saying the same thing' concept. Back home, we only speak one…'language,' no matter where we are. Hearing people saying the same thing in so many different ways, it…it's…" Li's shoulders came up in a shrug, and her arms crossed over her chest. "I don't know what to call it."

"I suppose, seeing as your Nation is so isolated, you've been experiencing a lot of changes since you came to us," England did his best to say something comforting. He wasn't sure how well it worked, since he hadn't exactly needed to do much comforting of late (except for Sealand, when something happened to make the younger Nation cry, and even then England was blunt with the boy because he feared anything more would result in accidentally recognizing the child as an independent Nation).

"Mhm," Li nodded, and there was a very awkward pause before one of them tried speaking again. It was Li, since England's mind had gone blank. "So…where was my room?"

Grateful for the escape, England guided Li to the small guest room in what had once been the servant quarters of his home—back when servants were the norm for a rich young politician, which was England's cover for his identity. Not that the Nations were a secret…just, their bosses feared that with the recent rise in terrorism, knowing that personifications of the very countries they were fighting against existed might give the terrorists some ideas. Ideas nobody would enjoy but the terrorists themselves.

Leaving Li to arrange her things in the dresser however she wished, England headed for the kitchen. He was a proper British gentleman, and as such he had to treat his guest properly. Time to cook.

* * *

Li sat down at England's kitchen table, eyeing the food he'd placed before her with trepidation. The rice part looked burnt, if that was possible—you boil rice, and to burn the rice you'd have to burn the water, but how do you burn water? As for the curry part, it was a noxious shade of brown Li was fairly sure food should not be.

Across the table, England was watching her expectantly. Was she supposed to take a bite before England did? Li would feel much better if England took a bite, just to prove this was edible fare…only, what if that was disrespectful somehow? In the Fire Nation, the host ate first from each dish so the guests would know there was no poison, but that was a throwback to the old feudal days when assassination was common. Here, the Nations didn't seem to care who ate first, they just dug in.

Well…Li was a guest, and she had to conform to her host's etiquette. It seemed more and more likely that she, as the guest, was expected to eat first, so Li would have to. To be rude to a host was a breach of honor, not as serious as disrespecting one's elder or better but fairly important in the Fire Nation.

With a bracing breath, Li dug her spoon into the food.

* * *

"Congratulations, Angleterre," France rolled his eyes as he spoke to his long-time rival. "You've managed to put the poor girl in the hospital with your cooking."

"It was an accident…" England sulked in his seat. The two were sitting in the waiting room of Bethlem Royal Hospital, the one place England could go to with an emergency of some sort and not have to fill out too much paperwork. His boss had made sure the head doctors all knew about England's identity, in case some crisis resulted in dangerous injury to the Nation. It had been useful before, when an economic downturn or terrorist attack had resulted in illness or injury.

After Li had tasted the curry—only a small bit, too!—she had managed to gasp out a brief compliment before collapsing. Thoroughly alarmed by this, England had picked her up and rushed her to a hospital. Prussia had had a similar reaction to his food, but Prussia was a Nation, albeit technically an ex-Nation. Li was just a human being. Who knew what effects the curry could have had? And England was so sure he'd made it perfectly this time…

Then that frog had turned up. France had decided to arrive for the meeting early and annoy England, but upon arriving in London he'd found an empty house. Several calls went ignored by England until the Nation finally caved and answered his phone. Once he knew what had happened, and where they were, France had rushed over…solely to insult England about his lack of cooking skills.

A nurse walked up to the two. "Really, though, it takes talent to be as bad a chef as you are," France continued. He was ignoring the pretty woman before him momentarily to give a final jab at England. That done, his attention went to the nurse. "Bonjour, mademoiselle. Do you have news of our friend? The one poisoned by badly-cooked curry?"

"Would you give it a bloody rest already?" England muttered. The nurse giggled: when France turned on the charm, he didn't mess around. Should France put in much more effort, he could likely have the girl in bed by eleven o'clock.

Fortunately, the nurse remembered why she was there and got back to business. "Your friend has been stabilized, her stomach has been pumped, and she's currently asleep. We expect her to wake up in a day or two, so until then feel free to stick around." The very last part had been directed exclusively at France, to his delight and England's disgust. "If you'd like, you can visit her now, but try not to make too much noise. Your…sister, needs her rest."

"She is not our sister, mademoiselle," France responded gravely. The obvious query had not been lost on England either, and he buried his face in his hands as France took over the conversation completely. "That girl is a political refugee who has requested and gained asylum in your country. Her illness is unfortunate, as her current host here, Monsieur Kirkland, was attempting to document certain information she had on rogue forces." The Nation paused, and added, "I trust you will not divulge this information to anyone? If it were to be known to the wrong people, there would be very bad consequences indeed."

"Oh, of course not," the nurse breathed. "I'll keep my lips shut." Ah, the charm of danger. It worked wonders on those whose lives were too ordinary for their own liking. And it worked for horny frogs with their eyes on a woman…

"Ah? Then I will have to thank you for that," France suggested mischeviously. "Why don't I take you to dinner as payment…? When does your shift end?"

While France charmed the nurse, England rose and got directions to Li's room. He slipped inside, hearing the steady beep of the heart monitor and reflecting on the irony of the situation. When Li first arrived, most of the Nations had been reluctant to let her be admitted to a hospital—what if she escaped and ran lose? They had taken responsibility for her, both to protect her and to protect themselves, and now she was lying in the place they hadn't wanted her to go.

The monitors beeped and blipped and generally made noises. Li's breathing was steady and even. England drew up a chair and settled himself in to wait for another Nation to arrive.

* * *

Nekoli rolled over on the cobblestones, letting out a small meow as she felt the sun beat down on her. It felt so nice and warm, that she didn't want to wake up at all. Maybe she could just sleep until nightfall…

But the edges of the stones were digging into her side, and she couldn't ignore them no matter how she shifted about. Blinking her eyes open slowly, Nekoli shifted her feet underneath her. The sun was high in the sky, considerably higher than it had been when Nekoli first went to sleep, and was casting few shadows over the strange new town Nekoli had found herself in.

It was a curious town, nothing like her old home. There, in her old town, all the buildings were lovely constructions with curved roofs and tall garden walls around homes. Here, different materials were used, different styles were evident in each house, and different food was served. Here they desired tuna. Back home, all the cats wanted fresh eel. Mm, fresh eel…

And the cats here! Nekoli hadn't interacted much with them. She was a little scared to. Why had her owner wanted to move here anyways? Couldn't she have found a better job in their hometown? Now Nekoli was missing all her old friends, Rucat and Kaitty and everyone else. Even Calihuo! That said something there, because Nekoli considered Calihuo a huge annoyance. Missing him, _him_, was testament to just how homesick Nekoli was getting.

Well, she should head back home. Her owner would have something in the food bowl for dinner by now, and her stomach was feeling rather empty. Ooh, maybe there would be fresh eel…

So absorbed was Nekoli in her thoughts of fresh eel, she failed to notice that there was another cat coming around the corner until she ran right into him. "Meowch!" Nekoli cried, rubbing her head. "I'm sorry, very sorry, meooooowch that hurt…"

"Ve~?" The cat Nekoli had run into tilted his head and peered at the other cat. "Oh! I've seen you around lately! You're the new cat in town!"

"Hm?" Nekoli glanced up at the other cat. He was a tabby, with an odd strand of his fur coming out of his pelt near his forehead, curling up from the left side of his head. "Oh…yes, I am."

"Nice to meet you! I'm Itabby!" The other cat purred. "My master calls me Gino. What's your name?"

"Huh?" Nekoli blinked, then hastened to respond. "I'm Nekoli, and my owner calls me Akina. Pardon me, I was on my way home, my owner should be putting food in my dish any minute now…"

"Oh, why don't you come to my house for supper? My master loves cats like us, and he'd be more than happy to give you something to eat!" Itabby suggested, completely ignoring Nekoli's protests.

"No, I really can't, my master is—" Nekoli began, but Itabby didn't pay attention. He grabbed the scruff of the smaller cat's neck in his mouth and began to dash for a nearby home. No matter how Nekoli protested, he didn't let go. Either he was stupid, or deaf. Possibly both, because Nekoli was caterwauling up a storm, yet he didn't seem to notice.

"You'll love the food my master gives me," Itabby promised through a mouthful of fur. "There's pasta, and pizza, and tomatoes…"

"But aren't those human foods?" Nekoli squirmed, trying to break free. She failed, and Itabby dragged her over the threshold of his house. "Let me go already! I have to get home! My owner might give me eel—!"

"Who wants eel when they can have pasta? Or tuna!" Itabby purred, depositing Nekoli before a large food dish. It was empty. "Aw, he hasn't brought the pasta yet. Want some catnip?"

"No, I do not want catnip!" Nekoli yowled. "I want to go home and get supper from my master, then play with my rubber mouse until it's time for bed! Why did you kidnap me?"

"Kidnap?" Itabby's ears perked up, and his eyes widened. "I just want to be friends! I thought if we ate together we could get to know each other better, and we could become friends! I'm sorry for kidnapping you! It's just, you've been here a little while, and I don't think I've seen you playing with any of the other cats before now."

"Oh…" Nekoli looked away, realizing Itabby had a point about her not playing with the other cats. She missed her friends back home so much, she hadn't wanted to play with anyone else. Maybe a part of her was hoping that her owner would see how miserable and friendless her cat was and move back home. But that was silly, wasn't it, because humans didn't worry if their pets were friendless. Humans didn't think their cats had friends, other than their owners, in the first place.

"So…can we be friends?" Itabby asked. Nekoli wasn't looking at him, but she was sure he was staring at her.

Well…she probably wasn't going to go home anytime soon…so making a friend wouldn't be so bad, would it? "All right," Nekoli answered shyly. "I guess…we can be friends. If you really want…if you're sure."

"Of course I'm sure, ve~!" Itabby purred. His ears relaxed, and his tail started to swing back and forth in a contented manner. "You can never have too many friends!"

Nekoli looked away in embarrassment. She wasn't sure if agreeing to be Itabby's friend was some sort of betrayal of her friends back home. Before leaving, she'd promised them she would never forget them—and now she felt like she was leaving their memory behind by making new connections here. And what if her owner did decide to move back home? Then Nekoli'd be leaving behind a friend here, one she might miss…

…life was complicated.

"So…" Nekoli looked up at Itabby awkwardly, "if we're friends now…would you like to play?"

* * *

Italy burst into the hospital room, tears streaming from his eyes. "I heard what happened!" He wailed. "England, how could youuuu? You know your food tastes like crap! Why would you try to feed it to someone else? Ahh, is Li gonna diiiiie?"

"Wha—of course she's not going to die!" England protested. He caught the other Nation by the arm to keep him from tackling Li on her bed, and turned Italy to face him. "I—I don't cook _that_ badly! And who told you? The doctors say she'll recover by tomorrow, the day after that at the latest, so I didn't want to worry anyone by telling them what had happened!"

"Big brother France called and told me!" Italy rubbed at his eyes. "There was a woman giggling and talking about jelly in the background, but he said Li was unconscious in a hospital because you made her eat your food! And I got really worried and ran out the door and Romano asked me what I was doing and I told him you'd put Li in a hospital and he yelled something about calling the other Nations and coming after you but is Li gonna diiiiie?"

"I already told you, she's fine!" England shouted before processing everything Italy had said. "Wait a minute…what was that about coming after me?"

"W-well, Romano said that if you'd hurt the person who gave him a tomato bracelet, he'd track you down and kill you himself," Italy laughed nervously. He started to poke his pointer fingers against one another—it was a nervous tic of his that he'd picked up from watching too many animes of Japan's. "But if Li's fine, I'm sure he won't bother."

"Italy…after holding you and your brother captive during World War Two, I'd like to say that I've learned a few things about you both," England's eyes widened in horror. "And one of those things is that once Romano gets an idea into his head—like disliking Germans—he never gives it up. Ever."

"Oh…ve~…" Italy's head tilted to one side. "That's right…fratello doesn't change his mind very often…"

England resisted the urge to slap Italy, but only barely. Germany would kill him before Romano and whoever he recruited could.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Nekoli walked down a street, her tail swishing jauntily. She was purring slightly, a low vibration in the back of her throat that humans couldn't hear. Life was good: life was great! Why had she been so reluctant to make friends before now? Itabby had shattered that silly delusion.

And what a silly delusion it had been! Nekoli missed her friends, yes, missed them terribly. But that was no reason to stop living! And it had been Itabby to make her see that, kind, spirits-sent Itabby.

What had been her reasoning for wanting to cut herself off from the other cats in the neighborhood, anyways? Hadn't it just been a tantrum, designed to catch the attention of her owner and whoever else would notice with just how miserable Nekoli was? And that was such a…a kittenish thing to do, completely immature and uncalled for. It was the owner who called the shots, not the cat, and the cat could only go along with their owner's decision. She had to accept that.

At least she accepted it now. Nekoli accepted that she was stuck in this town for what looked to be the rest of her life, and she was fine with that. She'd made a new friend, someone who could make her laugh and purr in happiness, and that was all she needed.

So caught up was Nekoli in thoughts of her new friend, she completely failed to notice the dog until she walked into its leg.

There was a very awkward moment as Nekoli realized what the fur-covered leg was attached to, and the dog stared at the small shorthair that had run into it. Both of them looked at each other, not quite comprehending what had just happened.

Then it hit, and the dog lunged. Nekoli, fortunately, dodged its mouth—she could feel the passing wind as those sharp teeth snapped the air where her back had been a second ago. Not wasting any time, she dashed for the nearest high object she could see—a fence along the road, maybe the same height as Nekoli's owner. Using some nearby trash cans as intermediary steps, Nekoli managed to make her way all the way to the top of the fence.

Once she was balanced on the thin wood, she glanced down. The dog couldn't quite reach her, and was jumping up against the fence uselessly. It was also barking, but no humans were coming to silence it. A collar around its neck had a rope leading to a small stake in the yard of one nearby house.

Nekoli felt her heart sink to her paws. The rope the dog was on was long enough to let it move all the way across the street, effectively blocking off Li's path. Her fence—well, not _her_ fence, but the fence she was standing on—didn't go all the way past the dog. She couldn't get by it without going into other yards, and she could hear more dogs barking in them even now. There was no other path to her home, because the other streets were all too heavily trafficked.

Her only way home was being blocked by a dog.

* * *

**Li: So, in case you hadn't guessed, this is the start of a very short crackarc in which I am dreaming about being a cat with the Nations. This was brought on by England's cooking, which nearly killed me, by the way. As a cat, you may identify me by the name of "Nekoli." Yes, that's Karen's clever way of incorporating my name into a cat's name. I'm going to go steal her cookies now. Please review and tell Karen how she may improve her story. That is all. Good day.**


	36. Nekotalia 2

**Me: Look, it's another chapter of the little crack arc, Nekotalia! In answer to a question I got in a review, Nekoli's owner is a version of Li who would have existed had Li been born in Europe and the Real World, not in the Fire Nation in Avatarverse.**

**Li: Karen does not own Hetalia or Avatar. She also wants to warn everyone now that she will be writing a 50000-word story for the month of November, as part of National Novel Writing Month, and may find herself skipping posting a week or two. If she does, she apologizes in advance and offers cookies to all her lovely readers.**

**Me: I am also very sleepy and have no life. Please enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

"I heard what happened!" Hungary shouted, bursting into the hospital room. Italy, sitting next to Li and holding her hand, shrieked in fear and attempted to hide behind the girl on the bed. Hungary quickly made her way to Li's bedside, and pulled up a chair next to Italy's (currently vacant, as Italy still hadn't processed that there was no danger to him). "Italy, how has she been?"

"Huh?" Italy peeked out from under the bed. "Oh, it's just you…she's been sleeping."

"At least she's all right," Hungary sighed in relief. "Romano's been calling a bunch of other Nations and ranting about how England's cooking has finally claimed a victim. It's…well, it's nice he's worried about Li, but I get the feeling a large part of it is him trying to get revenge for eating English food when he was captured back in World War Two."

"It was really bad," Italy agreed. He crawled back to his chair, and picked up Li's hand again. "The doctor said Li will wake up tomorrow or the day after, during the meeting. England said he'd ask Sealand to stay with her so there'll be a Nation around when she wakes up."

"Sealand's not a real Nation," Hungary said automatically. She smiled. "But at least England's thinking ahead. It's the least he can do, after he put Li in here."

"Uh-huh," Italy grinned. The two Nations sat in silence for a little while, until Hungary spoke again.

"It's kind of odd…isn't it? Being friends with a human, that is," she clarified as Italy frowned in confusion. "I make casual friends all the time, but they usually fall out of contact with me, or they notice I'm not aging and distance themselves. Some Nations isolate themselves from people not in their government, and we don't get too close to politicians because they're usually more interested in bettering themselves and not us. It's just…who was the last human you were close to, Italy? Close enough to want to be in a hospital waiting for them to wake up?"

"Ve~, I did flirt with a pretty girl the other day," Italy looked at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"Flirting doesn't count, Italy," Hungary giggled. "I just mean… like France and Jeanne, or England and his Queen Elizabeth I, without the romance part. When's the last time you got so close to a human?"

"Uhh…Victor Emmanual II," Italy's gaze dropped to the sheets by Li's side. "Fratello and I adored him…he was the first king of both of us. Before then we were separate, divided into warring city-states and small kingdoms, but with Giusuppe Garibaldi's help Victor was able to make us one unified country." A distant look crept into Italy's eyes, and a wistful smile spread over his face. "Fratello and I could live together again, after so many centuries of being apart…"

"And that was back in the eighteen hundreds," Hungary pointed out. "For me…the last human I really remember being that close to was Vajk, or I István, my first Christian king." She started to stare into empty space as memories flowed back to her. "He preferred for his friends to call him by his birth name, Vajk—István was his baptismal name. Vajk really helped make me independent from the Holy Roman Empire. Everyone thought I was a boy back then, too, so he used to joke that I was like a son to him." Her body trembled slightly as she summed up, "I miss him."

"And I miss Victor," Italy concluded sadly. "But humans get old and die. That's why we don't get so close to them."

"Li's going to get old and die too," Hungary began to study the sleeping girl's face. Muscles relaxed, mouth slightly open…nothing to suggest she was more than an ordinary girl. Her hair had been growing quickly—it brushed her shoulders now.

"You know, if Russia hadn't found her, we wouldn't know about her," Italy laughed. "And we wouldn't be friends! It's kinda funny, isn't it? We almost didn't meet."

"Yeah…but we did," Hungary felt a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. She closed her eyes. "I never really thought, after Vajk died, that I would find any humans as extraordinary as him. He accepted me as a Nation and as a person, and his patriotic drive helped shape the country I am today."

"Li's been taking it well, us being Nations," Italy patted the girl's hand gently. "I think most humans would laugh if I told them the truth about myself. It's really nice to have someone who takes me seriously."

* * *

Germouser munched on his catfood, used to how tasteless it was. His owner had picked it out for nutrition, not how much his cat would like it. The other cat of the house, Purrussia, got different food from his owner: he'd offered to share multiple times, but Germouser didn't think his master would like it.

It had been a most satisfying day, Germouser thought. Once he had scoured the house for mice (save for the room of Purrussia's owner, which only Purrussia could enter), he had attended the weekly Catference and spent his lunchtime playing with Itabby. After a nap and a discussion with Japaneko of the state of the neighborhood, Germouser had returned home, commenced an afternoon sweep for mice, and been served his dinner. Everything that needed doing had been done, and his schedule had not been compromised. All that was left was to finish eating, groom himself, play with a catnip mouse toy, and go to sleep.

Wait…what was that sound? It was coming from the direction of the door, and sounded a lot like someone scratching…Itabby. When he went to look, he'd find Itabby, possibly Japaneko, waiting to talk to him. Itabby would want him to do something extremely difficult, maybe even impossible, and would not accept a "no." Whatever it was, he'd have to give it a try—half-hearted though it may be—and find someone else to do it for Itabby.

How could he be so sure? It wasn't the first time this had happened…

He really hoped it wasn't going to be similar to the "my catnip fell into the riding stables" incident. It took a week for his owner to wash the scent of horse manure out of Germouser's fur, and as punishment for going somewhere so filthy Germouser's catnip had been taken away.

"What is it?" Germouser stuck his head out of his cat door. Itabby was there, all right, but there seemed to be another cat with him as well. He or she was partially hiding behind Itabby, with only half of his or her head showing and most of his or her body unseen. From what he could see, the other cat was a shorthair, with brown fur and eyes. A whiff of scent hit him, and he was able to determine this was a queen—a female cat.

Please let this not involve kittens, please let this not involve kittens…

"Ve~, Germouser, we need you to scare off a dog!"

…

Kittens or catnip in riding stables suddenly didn't seem too bad…

* * *

Lanko tapped his foot impatiently, fully aware it was driving his sister mad and not really caring. He was bored. Really, really bored. And Lanko didn't _like_ being bored.

There really was nothing to do but wait, though. Whoever or whatever the monk's spirit friend was, it was taking its sweet time getting there. Packing hadn't occupied much of his time: Lanko's team, which consisted of him, his sister, and that creepy Fire Nation chick Duyao, kept themselves ready to move out on a mission whenever the need should arise. Talking wasn't much of an option, since Meiko was in a pissy mood and sulking in a corner, while Duyao was just too weird to hold a decent conversation. Oh well. Lanko wasn't much of a talker himself.

Tap, tap, tap…

Meiko raised her face to glare at him, and he gave her a cheerful grin in response. Duyao was standing rigidly near the door, arms behind her ramrod-straight back. Those empty gray eyes of hers were staring at nothing again. Creepy.

Lanko started to toy with a braid of his hair, one hanging on the left side of his face. The beads at the ends of his other braids clinked against each other, breaking the silence even more. One slipped off—he really should have let Meiko do them this morning—and broke into two pieces on the floor. Meiko twitched slightly at the noise, and muttered something under her breath Lanko couldn't hear. He leaned down and grabbed the smaller of the two halves, which hadn't moved much. As for the larger half…

Hey, where had the larger half gone? Lanko squinted at the ground, trying to figure out where it might be hiding, but no luck. Um, he thought it might have rolled into that really shadowy niche…? Still crouched down, he shuffled forward awkwardly to reach into the niche and—

"Sharding whalebones!" Lanko yelped, throwing himself backwards. His club was in his right hand before his behind hit the ground, and a wicked jawbone knife quickly appeared in his left.

"What is it?" Meiko sprang to her feet, drawing water from a pouch slung across her back. Duyao tensed, but otherwise failed to move.

"I felt something!" Lanko pointed at the niche with his club. "There's something in there, and it has hands!"

"I can't see anyone," Duyao noted tonelessly. Lanko scrabbled to get to his feet, and turned to face his teammate.

"You wanna stick your hand back there? 'Cause I'm telling you, I felt something in it!" He brandished his club in the general direction of the niche.

"I'm sorry," a humor-filled voice apologized. "I didn't realize you were so jumpy."

Lanko's jaw slackened. He must have looked like an idiot, but as he slowly turned his head to see a humanoid _thing_ emerge from the shadows of the niche, he really didn't care. As the figure entered the light, unfolding from the niche—which was kind of small and couldn't possibly have hidden an adult human—its skin transformed from insubstantial darkness to flesh and cloth. It strode to the center of the room, right before Lanko, and peered up at him quizzically.

The thing looked like a teenage boy in the light, with floppy brown hair and lifeless yellow eyes. Something in the way it moved made Lanko think it was unused to its body, the long limbs and large appendages. It was shorter than him by a head, but then, Lanko was a beast of a man who towered above almost everyone else.

"You're missing a bead," the thing held up its hand. The larger half of the bead, the half that had rolled into the niche, had somehow been repaired into a whole bead, and was resting innocently in the shadow-creature's hand. "I think this is yours."

Lanko wasn't sure how to respond. The thing sighed, and lowered its hand, letting the bead drop to the floor. Meiko was holding her water at the ready, in a stance Lanko knew from experience would allow her to cut or whip with it in mere seconds. Duyao had relaxed, and was merely watching the proceedings without any trace of emotion in her eyes. Freaky woman...would she have even acted if there _had_ been a threat?

"It's time to go," the shadow-creature informed the team. "I trust you have a plan?"

Wait…what?

"_You're_ the spirit Lord Gege told us to wait for?" Meiko blinked, lowering her water and streaming it back into its pouch. The boy nodded shortly. "Why didn't he tell us to expect you?"

"How should I know?" The boy shrugged. "In any case, we have someone to kill. What's your plan?"

"Hold up, I'm still not following," Lanko scowled. "Lord Gege didn't say you were—well, looked—Fire Nation. Plan A won't work unless you're an animal, or you can go invisible, or something. Uh, I guess you can do stuff with shadows, so does that count as invisible…?"

"I can change my coloring, if you'd like," the thing offered. "Oh…how rude, I've forgotten to introduce myself. Mm…I don't think I can still use my old name, I'm not really that kid anymore, so…call me…Zuzhou. Yeah, I like how that sounds."

"Meiko, Gege's spirit friend is a weirdo," Lanko…well, he didn't whine it. No way did a full-fledged warrior whine. But he said it quite plaintively, and it was clear he expected her to do something about it. She was his big sister! It was her _job_ to do stuff for him!

"Deal with it," Meiko responded shortly. "If…Zuzhou is Gege's ally, we must trust him as well."

"Then I'm calling him Zhou, because I like it better than Zuzhou," Lanko stowed his weapons in their places and crossed his arms. "I'd go with Zu, but I like how Zhou sounds more…are you even listening? Hey!"

Meiko was talking over him, addressing Zuzhou. "We intend to first attempt to destroy our target's physical body by infiltrating the Northern Water Tribe. Entering the Spirit World to look for the target's soul will be our second course. Couldn't you enter the Tribe alone, though?"

"Not the place where Li is," Zhou's face darkened. "The Moon and Ocean Spirits' Oasis won't let a spirit like me in. Humans can come and go freely, which means it's up to you to do the job once I've brought you inside."

"Could you instantly transport us, or cloak us in your shadows?" Duyao spoke up. Her voice was flat, devoid of all emotion—creepy as new moon, in Lanko's opinion.

"Nope," Zhou shrugged. "So I hope you have some ideas for getting in."

"Well, I have a few thoughts," Meiko spoke slowly. "But first, I'd like to know what all you can do…"

* * *

Nekoli lashed her tail nervously, wondering what Germouser was thinking. She had guided him and Itabby to the place where the dog was, and after asking a few questions about her usual route home Germouser had fallen silent. The dog itself was laying down by the side of the road, ears pricked up and eyes darting around. It hadn't noticed the cats in the street five houses down. All of the yards surrounding the dog's own were either fenceless or had a dog in them, making them useless for sneaking by.

Oh, why did this have to happen? The very first day Nekoli started to open up to her fellow cats, a dog blocked her way home and forced her to seek help from strangers. Would this hurt her chances of making friends? It might…she could be seen as the weak cat with no ability to protect herself whatsoever. Back home, that would have put her at the lowest rung of the cats' hierarchy…was it the same here? Itabby didn't seem like the fighting type, but he was able to get Germouser to help him…

"All right," Germouser interrupted Nekoli's train of thought. "I have a plan for getting past the dog. Itabby, how good are you at caterwauling?"

"Pretty good, Germouser!" Itabby puffed his chest out proudly. "Why? Do you want me to sing something? I know lots of great songs!"

"Yes, but you'll need to wait for my signal," Germouser informed him sternly. "Now, while Itabby…sings, I will distract the dog by shouting and taunting it. Nekoli, you can use that chance to sneak by."

"Okay," Nekoli bobbed her head nervously. "Th-thank you for this…"

"It's no trouble," Germouser looked away from her, and pointed his tail at a wooden fence nearby. "Itabby, go up there, and when I begin yowling at the dog, I want you to sing as loudly as you can. Can you do that?"

"Sure thing!" Itabby's ears perked up. He scampered over to the fence, taking up his position. Germouser slunk as close to the dog as he dared. Nekoli snuck over to the opposite side of the street, doing her best to be inconspicuous and avoid the dog's notice. It worked, and she took up a position under some foliage.

Germouser looked at his two companions, checking to be sure they were in place and ready. Nekoli was crouching underneath a hedge, her fur standing on edge in nervousness. Itabby seemed oblivious to the possibility of danger, and was swatting at a butterfly. He nearly fell off the fence, but caught himself in time.

All ready. Germouser opened his mouth, and let out a magnificent yowl.

The dog's reaction was immediate. It shot to its feet, and lunged towards the noisy little pest invading its territory. However, the rope around its neck cut it off just short of Germouser. Since its prey was out of reach, the dog started to bark like mad.

Itabby screeched in terror, and fell off his fence. Germouser heard him wailing, but since Itabby was supposed to be making noise anyways he didn't pay much attention to the words. Nekoli was trying to sneak by on the other side of the street, but she was scared by the barking and had to force herself not to run. Running would catch the dog's attention, wouldn't it?

Then Nekoli glanced over at the dog, and her heart nearly stopped. Itabby had fallen from his fence, and had run over to Germouser—likely for protection. But Germouser was only barely out of the dog's reach, and Itabby tripped and fell as he ran. The tabby cat slid on the grass, and wound up just within biting distance of the dog's huge teeth.

"Itabby!" Nekoli screamed without thinking. The dog's ears pricked up, twitching in her direction, but the cat it could reach was still more interesting than a cat a little ways off. Its mouth opened, and it barked triumphantly as it lunged—

"Americat to the rescue!"

From what seemed like out of nowhere, a white cat with a mantle of brown fur over its shoulders jumped onto the dog's back and dug its claws in. The dog panicked, and started trying to buck the animal off. Itabby took the opportunity to scramble out of the way, and raced towards the end of the street. Germouser rushed forward to help the newcomer, swiping at the dog's legs while trying to evade its thrashing head.

Nekoli's mind had gone blank with fear, and she stood frozen on the sidelines, trying to make her mind function properly. Should she try to get past the dog anyways? But Itabby, he could have hurt himself! And Germouser, who she didn't even know, was putting himself in harm's way, as was this strange other cat. What should she do? _Could_ she do anything? Her heart was beating faster than it should, her fur was standing on end, her tail was stiff as a board, her ears were flat against her head and she was crouching as far down as she could in an effort to stay unnoticed and…and…

Why did she have to ask Itabby for help?

* * *

**Li: There is only one chapter left of this blessedly-short crack arc, which will be up next week. Please read and review, as Karen cannot improve her work without your input. That is all. Have a nice day!**


	37. Nekotalia 3

**Aaand...NaNoWriMo has begun. If I miss posting a week, it's likely because my NaNo story is taking up my time. I've made a firm decision to keep with it and actually finish this year, so until the end of November I'll be making myself type 1667 words a day _at minimum_. I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, and here is the last chapter of the short little crackarc Nekotalia.**

* * *

Germouser was making a racket, trying to distract the dog from the cat on its back. Itabby was making noise as well, though his motivation was more fear than distracting the dog. That strange cat Nekoli didn't know was clinging to the dog's back, laughing as he did despite the dog's attempts to throw him off.

And what was Nekoli doing through all of this? She was staring at the scene, oddly fascinated with it, the small portion of her mind that still worked screaming at her to move, to help, to _do something_. But she couldn't make her legs move, or her mouth work. It was like the dog had some sort of paralyzing effect on her, making her unable to function properly. Was it fear? Probably. Did knowing that do anything to help her situation? Nope.

She watched, fascinated, as Germouser finally had enough of yowling and darted forward. He swept his claws over the dog's left foreleg, snarling, and dodged the canine's attempt to bite him. Itabby, bereft of protection now that Germouser was joining the action, took the chance to run over to Nekoli.

"Ve-ow, let's gooooo!" Itabby wailed, burying his face in Nekoli's fur. The smaller cat fell over, and Itabby draped himself on top of her, crying about how scared he was. "It's so scary, scary, scary, ve~!"

"I-Itabby, I can't breathe," Nekoli gasped. Itabby either didn't hear her or didn't care, because he made no move to get off. "Itabby, please, get off…"

"Wahahahahaha!" The strange cat on the dog's back crowed. "Take that, you loser mutt! You're not gonna beat Americat!"

"Look out!" Germouser shouted, just as the dog twisted and slammed its back against the sidewalk. Americat, totally unprepared, released his hold on the dog in shock. He tumbled a few feet away, still within the dog's reach, and lay there panting for breath.

Itabby had had enough. He rolled off of Nekoli, but before she could do anything he sank his teeth into her scruff. With a muffled "Let's goooooo!" (it sounded more like "Wff guuuuu!"), the tabby started dragging her off.

Something finally clicked in Nekoli's brain, and she started to thrash around. Itabby dropped her partway down the street, and Nekoli was charging back towards the dog the minute her feet hit the ground. Germouser was trying to defend Americat, but the dog was larger and stronger than any cat. And the dog knew it.

"Waaaaait!" Itabby wailed as Nekoli dashed away from him. "Don't leave meeee!"

Nekoli didn't hear him—she reached Americat, and pressed her nose against his side. "Can you get up?" She demanded, fidgeting nervously. The dog was so close, still dealing with the annoyance of Germouser.

"Nn…the hero can _always_ get up…" Americat wheezed. With Nekoli's prodding, he managed to get to his feet, but that seemed to take everything out of him. When he noticed the concern apparent in Nekoli's eyes, he forced one of his feet forward and nearly fell over.

"Uh…uh…" Nekoli tried to think of a solution, and did the first thing that came to her: she seized his neck. With what help he could offer, she managed to drag him out of the dog's range. "Ifabfy!" Nekoli called through a mouthful of fur. "Hebp!"

"What~?" Itabby tilted his head in confusion. Nekoli released Americat's neck, spat out some fur, and tried again.

"Help!" She repeated. "We need to get him away from the dog!" Itabby understood this time, and scurried forward. Both of them fastened their teeth into Americat's ruff, and—to Americat's great annoyance—carried him around the corner of the street.

"Germouser!" Nekoli ran back around to the dog's street. "Come on! Itabby and Americat are okay!"

"Ja!" Germouser shouted, taking one last swipe at the dog's belly. He dodged its jaws, and turned his momentum into a roll that took him outside of the canine's range. For a moment the two glared at each other, and then—holding his tail up insultingly—Germouser walked away. The dog barked like crazy after him, even after the cat had disappeared around the corner.

"Heh…the hero still saved the day…!" Americat attempted to laugh, but he wound up wheezing. "Gah, this is nothing! I'll be back on my feet saving people by tomorrow!"

"But Nekoli still can't get past the dog…" Itabby whined, laying his ears flat against his head. "How is she gonna get home now?"

"We'll just have to find more cats to help us," Germouser sighed. "Perhaps Japaneko would be willing…"

"No," Nekoli said firmly. Germouser and Itabby looked at her in surprise. Americat tried to turn towards her as well, but hissed in pain and settled with perking his ears towards her. "I'm very grateful for your help, but I can't let you endanger yourselves any more. Please, go home. I'll figure out a way past the dog myself."

"Huh?" Itabby gasped. "But there's no way you'll get by it alone! You need help! Right, Germouser?"

"I must agree with Itabby," Germouser nodded. "You need our help to succeed."

"But you're just going to get hurt!" Nekoli shouted in frustration. "I don't want you helping me if it's not safe! Maybe there's another route I can figure out…"

"No, there's no other safe way," Germouser sighed. "I know this town much better than you. We just need to recruit more cats. If we have the advantage of numbers, we will be able to overwhelm the enemy and secure a route past it."

"Why would anyone else want to help?" Nekoli's ears twitched downwards. "None of them live in my part of the town, I know that much. There's no need for them to go this way, so why should they help get rid of the dog?"

Nekoli didn't give them a chance to answer her: she walked between Itabby and Germouser, tail whishing from side to side. It caught Germouser's ear by accident, and Nekoli had to hide her slip-up with a "hmph," as if she'd been planning it.

Once she was out of their sight, Nekoli's legs folded. Her stomach hit the ground painfully, and she covered her head with her forelegs as she curled her tail around her body. "Stupid…" she hissed, thinking of what she had just done. How was she planning on getting past the dog on her own? What, was she just going to walk up to it and ask it to please move aside? Yes, of _course_ that would work, and why was she using sarcasm when thinking? Maybe she should go back…

No. She'd made her decision, and she couldn't go back. Besides, she truly didn't want anyone else getting hurt. Americat had just shown up out of nowhere and attacked, so what happened to him wasn't under her control, but Li didn't want any more of the neighborhood cats to fall prey to the dog just because of her.

So…what did she do now?

"Ve~ow, that wasn't very nice, Nekoli!"

"Huh?" Nekoli raised her head. Itabby was standing before her, ears perked up in a friendly manner. "D-didn't I tell you I don't want your help?"

"But you're my friend, aren't you?" Itabby purred. "Friends help friends! Even if I'm mostly useless, I'll do my best to help you get home!"

"Wha—?" Nekoli blinked.

"As will I," Germouser huffed from next to Nekoli. Having been preoccupied with Itabby, Nekoli hadn't noticed him come over, so the effect was similar to someone suddenly appearing. Quite understandably, the smaller cat screeched in fear and tried to run into a dense bush nearby. She got stuck, and had to suffer the embarrassment of being pulled out before the conversation could continue.

"Well?" Itabby asked when Nekoli was finally out of the bush. "Will you let us help you?"

"Um…" Nekoli hesitated. This was insane! Why would they offer to put themselves in harm's way for a cat they didn't even know?

…But, maybe that was just the kind of cat Itabby was?

Nekoli couldn't understand him. She really couldn't. Suddenly dragging her off, calling her his friend when they'd only just met, being so kind and welcoming to the strange new cat in town…what sort of cat did that? Maybe at first he seemed stupid, but that just didn't sit right with Nekoli. Itabby was definitely much too naïve and trusting, but stupid? No, not that. Never that.

So if he wasn't stupid, why was he doing this? Didn't he know he could get hurt? Was he counting on Germouser to protect him? Or was he not thinking about that at all? Trying to figure this out was making Nekoli's head hurt…

Still, she knew one thing. Itabby was a really nice cat.

"…All right," Nekoli bobbed her head. "You can help."

* * *

It was amazing how many of the other cats in town were willing to help. Americat had been dragged off by Fangland, presumably to recover, but the rest of the "Allied Cats" had chosen to stay. Furance, Russicat, and Chinatail had brought their neighbors as well, so many Li could barely remember them. Itabby's brother Rotabby had come, accompanied by Purrussia, Caustria, and Japaneko. Russicat had been followed by Belatail, who chased him around a bit before being distracted by Purrussia's catcalls and losing track of her prey. Hungatail brought Clawrea and Tailwan, and Monacat joined them after seeing Furance while she was passing by. Purrussia disappeared for a short while after Belatail calmed down, and reappeared with five cats he called the "Nordikitties." There were others, but aside from Turclaw and Greecat, Nekoli couldn't remember anyone else's names off the top of her head.

Nekoli was blown away by how casually everyone took the situation. "A dog? Ohon, that will not be much of a problem, mon amie," Furance had laughed after Nekoli approached him timidly.

"I'm only here because my brother would get all weepy if I didn't come," Rotabby had insisted. "I'm just doing this to make my life easier, got it? It's not like I need any more 'friends'!"

"Well, you seem nice enough," Tailwan had replied to Nekoli's question. "And we're always willing to help a fellow cat in this town!"

And everyone else had answers in a similar vein. Nekoli might have been touched enough to cry, if she wasn't so busy wondering what sort of cats she lived near (Russicat? After his cheerful mention of making the dog into cat food, Nekoli would never feel safe around him again. And don't get her started on Clawrea and his weird insistence that Chinacat and Japaneko's ears were his to lick).

Their plan was fairly straightforward: attack the dog from all sides, while those unwilling to put themselves in danger started up a racket to distract the dog before and during the attack. Nekoli was going to be attacking the dog's underbelly with Miceland, the only other cat around her size. Miceland was crouching next to Nekoli under a bush, eyes intently watching the dog. All the other cats were hiding atop fences or around corners, waiting for Germouser's signal to attack.

Nekoli tensed in anticipation. This was it…

* * *

Li pressed her eyelids shut, trying to block out the light assaulting her eyes. Where was it even coming from? Shouldn't Hong's earth shelter be dark at this time of day? Morning? Whatever it was, but Hong's earth shelters had openings facing west, so there should only be light in them when the sun was setting. And Li was always up by mid-morning, at the latest, if Huo hadn't woken her up dawn.

Come to think of it, she couldn't sense the sun sinking beneath the horizon, so it couldn't be dusk. There was no sensation of the sun rising, either, so it wasn't dawn. But there was also no breeze, meaning Li hadn't fallen asleep outside the shelter. So what was that light?

And that strange noise…it followed the rhythm of Li's heartbeat, an unnatural sound that almost reminded Li of machines squeaking. Like the light hurt her closed eyes, the sound was hurting Li's ears, each high-pitched repetition resonating in Li's head and making it feel like her brain itself was throbbing in pain.

She was going to have to open her eyes to find out what was going on, wasn't she? Stupid Hong, not making his shelter properly, letting light and a weird noise get in…

Everything was blurry as her eyes opened, and became clearer as she blinked a few times. She was lying on a bed with crisp white sheets, in a medium-sized room with clean white walls and a few landscape paintings. The door was in one corner, partially open to allow for a view of a busy hallway. A couple of wooden chairs with cushions somehow built into them were against one wall, and a metal chair had been set next to Li's bed.

Sitting in that chair was a young boy in a white and blue outfit with a large blue hat. He was reading what looked to be a picture book. The boy's face was at a three-quarter turn from Li, but she could see his hair was yellow. Yellow…

Yellow like England's hair!

Wait…wasn't her last memory eating some of England's curry?

…

Well…maybe he wasn't too offended?

"Um…hello?" Li rasped. She winced: her voice was scratchy and dry. It felt like nothing, aside from air, had passed through her throat in a day or more. The boy turned around, revealing eyebrows almost as huge as England's. Did that mean they were related?

"Hey, you're up!" He exclaimed. "It's nice to meet you! I'm the mighty Sealand, great and powerful empire!"

"Huh?" Li squinted, trying to focus on moving her limbs. They responded well enough, if a bit shakily, and she managed to prop herself up on her elbows. "Where am I?"

"Bethlem Royal Hospital," Sealand replied. "England-jerk brought you here after you collapsed from eating his food. I don't blame you, he's a terrible cook. Why do you look so depressed?"

"No reason…" Li muttered despondently. Wow, fainting after eating her host's food. What a wonderful guest she was…

"In any case!" Sealand stood up, setting his book on the metal chair. "I really should tell a nurse you're awake. I'll be back in a second! Then I can tell you all about how much cooler I am than England-jerk! Oh, and I'll get you some water too, because you really sound like you need it."

"Um, okay," Li nodded, but Sealand was already out the door. He ran with his arms sticking straight out on either side, like he was a bird hoping to take flight. When he went through the narrow doorway he raised them above his head, as if he was about to flap his wings. Li felt a smile curling across her face as she watched him go: he was such a cute kid, wasn't he? Though she had no idea why he kept calling England "England-jerk." Maybe it was because of some bad blood between them in the past?

Li lowered herself back down onto her pillows, and drew the sheets up to her chin. Her thoughts turned to her dream—being a cat with all the Nations. She had some weird dreams, didn't she? Someone—Li thought it might have been Liandao—had told her once that dreams were the subconscious expressing itself as someone slept. If that was true, what was her subconscious trying to tell her? That she needed to trust the Nations? And what did the dog represent?

Of course, and Li laughed at the thought, it could just be that she wouldn't mind the carefree life of a cat. Wouldn't Greece have loved to have that dream? She'd have to tell him about it sometime: he'd been in it, even. Li hadn't been able to spend much time at his house, but they'd talked a little during the trip to Italy's party, and he seemed likeable enough. Turkey too, even if the masked Nation seemed a bit eccentric. She had to wonder what had happened in the past to make them hate each other so…

Did she have to think about this now, though? Interpreting dreams, pondering how she felt about the Nations…Li was tired. Surely she could stand to rest a bit more.

Besides, she'd yet to finish that dream…

* * *

Nekoli pushed through her cat door and into the kitchen of her home, pulling her tail close to her body so it wouldn't be caught in as the flap closed. She could hear her owner pacing in the living room, muttering about how dangerous the neighborhood might be for a new cat. Without hesitation, Nekoli ran for the open archway that connected the kitchen and dining room.

"Akina?" Nekoli's owner exclaimed in surprise. "Akina! Sweetie, you're home, thank goodness, I was so worried…" Hands picked Nekoli up, and the cat was being pressed to a human female's chest, her owner's finger scratching at that purrrrrfect spot behind her ear that felt almost as nice as catnip smelled…

"Ve~, your house is nice, Nekoli!" Itabby called, padding into the living room. He jumped onto the lone couch, facing the television, and curled up on one of the squashy pillows Nekoli's owner loved so much.

"Huh?" Nekoli's owner paused in scratching at Nekoli's ear, then resumed with vigor. "Aww, my kitty made a friend! That's great!"

"Oh, this is your house~?" Hungatail entered, followed by Germouser, Japaneko, and Purrussia, then all the rest of the cats that had come to help Nekoli get past the dog. "The carpet in here is really fuzzy and soft! Mm, feels nice…" Hungatail crouched down, then rolled onto her back, stretching luxuriously on the white shag carpet of the living room.

"It is quite pleasant," Germouser admitted grudgingly, trying to hide the happy lashing of his tail as he stroked the floor with one paw.

"My kitty made a lot of friends!" Nekoli's owner laughed. She paused from scratching Nekoli's ear again to sit down in an armchair, settling Nekoli in her lap before resuming with the attention-lavishing. "Heh…my cat has more friends than me right now…"

Nekoli squirmed out from under her owner's hand and sat up. Her owner raised her hand in surprise as Nekoli placed her paws on her owner's collarbone so that her face was about level with her owner's cheek. She administered a friendly lick, then turned and jumped to the ground.

"Come on," Nekoli cat-smiled at her new friends. "Let me show you my 'castle!'"

"Woah, she has a castle?" Itabby perked up. "I wanna see, I wanna see! Is there a tower?"

"Yup," Nekoli's tail began to move from side to side happily. "And a nice, small little room for me to sleep in if I don't want to share my owner's pillow. Plus, you can scratch it all you want and my owner never gets mad at me for it! Come see, come see!"

Nekoli's owner watched her cat streak off towards her study, where Nekoli's "cat castle"—a series of platforms made of scratch-resistant material, with a couple small areas for sleeping in—was located. The other cats mostly followed Nekoli, but one of them—a dark grey tomcat with a black, red, and yellow ribbon around his neck—instead walked over to Nekoli's owner and placed a paw against her leg. She could almost see him giving her a worried look, all too similar to one a blond coworker of hers had…

"Hiya there," she leaned over and picked him up. He squirmed a bit for a moment, but settled down quickly as she started scratching behind his ears. "You're a handsome lad, aintcha? Did you make friends with my Akina? Oh, I don't think I've introduced myself…call me Linette, would ya?" The tomcat obviously didn't respond, nor did Linette expect him to, but she smiled softly as she figured out juuuuust where he liked to be scratched and set him off purring.

"Maybe it's time I started following my cat's example…" Linette whispered. She glanced at a picture set on an end table next to the couch. It was of her, a young boy that looked quite a bit like her, and a man in his twenties. Their arms were wrapped around each other and huge smiles were on their faces. Such happy days…but so fragile, too, if a single car accident could take them away from her.

"Brothers…" Linette lowered her head and started to tremble. "Would you be okay if…I moved on?"

* * *

**For those who wonder, Linette is not technically Li. Since the NationCats all live in the same town, I'm sort of considering them an AU version of Hetalia where their owners are all humans. Thusly, Linette is not Li, but a character vaguely based on Li who pretty much only serves the purpose of being Nekoli's owner in this story. And yup, think I'm done! ^_^**


	38. Anxiety

**Me: Oh look! A chapter! Perhaps you should read it?**

**Li: Who would wanna read your stories?**

**Me: The person reading this conversation might...**

**Li: *eyeroll* Karen does not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or Hetalia Axis Powers, only the Original Characters she and a friend created. Hopefully she'll actually get that story about us posted soon...**

**Me: If my schedule keeps up like this, it's very unlikely...**

**Li: *sigh* Of course.**

* * *

Hungary gathered up her papers from the meeting, and looked expectantly towards England. He had received a text message halfway through the meeting, disrupting the already-chaotic meeting and prompting Germany to take over. There could have been any number of reasons for the text: an important government official wanting to inform England of a new political twist, a wrong number, America being bored…or Li had woken up.

Italy had tried pestering England for more information, but Germany hadn't allowed it—they did have a meeting to finish, and America's brief disappearance after Japan's earthquake had put him behind on several matters that needed to be addressed. England had no other texts, so with much reluctance, the Nations focused on their work and finished the meeting on-schedule.

And now they were done, and had free time. The African Nations were talking about going out for drinks that night, and had roped the Oceanic Nations into joining them. America, who almost seemed to have split into two people because Hungary kept seeing him in totally different places only seconds apart, was going with China and several other Asian Nations to have a video conference with Japan. Italy had already rushed out the door to head to Bethlem Hospital, not bothering to speak with England first, pulling Austria with him. Lithuania and Poland were heading out as well, likely on their way to Bethlem too.

But Hungary had other ideas. "England, wait," she called as the Nation tried to slip out the door. He looked up, and she used the opportunity to pick her things up before rushing over to him. "You're going to the hospital, right? Let me go with you. I get the feeling we'll meet some of the others there."

"Uh, sure thing," England blinked at her. "But don't you usually go places with Austria, or Italy, or Poland?"

"They've already left," Hungary explained. "And I would like to talk to you about how Li got there in the first place."

"Oh, uh, that," England turned pale. "Well, you see, I just thought, um, I figured that…uh…"

"I'm letting you pass on feeding her your cooking, because it's pretty clear you know what you did wrong there," Hungary paused to give England a stern look, "but we really need to talk about hospitals. What did they say when they saw the scars on her legs?"

"France said she was a refugee, and that she had important information on terrorists or something," England sighed. He relaxed a bit at hearing that he wouldn't be scolded on feeding Li his cooking, and held the door open for Hungary as they walked out together. "We let them assume from there where she was from and what had happened. Of course, that bloody frog felt he _had_ to distract that nurse further…stupid git…"

"I'll bet," Hungary muttered. "Anyways, what did you do for paperwork?"

"I used the 'refugee' story to explain away her lack of papers, and asked that she be omitted from hospital records," England explained. "What paperwork we have left will be simple enough to fill out. I'll probably have to say she doesn't speak English, which she herself already said, and do the forms for her…"

"She doesn't speak English?" Hungary raised her eyebrows. "At least we know that much. Do you have any leads on what language she really does speak?"

"I've no idea," England confessed. The two reached the doors to the outside of the conference center, and again he held the door for Hungary. "I was hoping a nurse might be able to tell me. Actually, I'm wondering why we haven't asked a normal human to speak to her before now."

"Um…good point," Hungary stared up into the sky for a moment to contemplate. It was a valid point. But then, Nations could understand everyone else in most circumstances—save when another Nation didn't want to be understood, and even that could be foiled by an independent knowledge of the language—so languages were never much of a priority.

"It's probably safe to assume that she doesn't speak Italian, or Russian, or the language of any country she's already visited," England speculated, "seeing as she mentioned on the drive to my home that not being able to understand everyone made travel so confusing. I've yet to see her write anything, so we can't go off of that…"

"We'll see when we get to the hospital," Hungary shrugged as they reached a car waiting for England on the side of the street. The driver and England exchanged a few words in low tones that Hungary couldn't hear, then the door was opened for them and they climbed into the back seat.

"Thirsty?" England reached to the front passenger seat and pulled a bottle of water from a cooler. "I've found I tend to get thirsty right after meetings. I don't dare drink too much of the water we're given in case I suddenly need to use the bathroom in the middle of someone's speech, and our meetings go for so long without breaks that my throat can get quite dry."

"No, I'm good," Hungary declined. England unscrewed the bottle and took a drink himself. Their conversation turned to meetings, and troubles during them, and the ride to the hospital passed by quickly.

* * *

Tension sizzled in the air. On one side of the almost-otherwise-empty room stood the Earth Kingdom, muscles tense, hands clasped behind her back. Her entire body trembled slightly from anger. Opposing her stood the Northern Water Tribe, dripping wet. That might have something to do with the bucket lying on its side partway between the two, closer to the Earth Kingdom than the Northern Water Tribe. Both were glaring at each other, neither appearing to be willing to back down.

Then footsteps, steady and heavy, could be heard walking towards the room. A door opened on the wall to Earth Kingdom's left and Northern Water Tribe's right, and Si Wong Desert appeared in the opening. He took one look, closed the door quietly, and his footsteps could be heard going back down the hallway.

His intrusion had gone unnoticed, however. Both Nations were too absorbed in glaring to pay attention to petty details such as intruders. Although, something had changed, because Earth Kingdom spoke at last.

"When you are a guest in my house," she hissed, "you will be polite and clean up any mud you track on the floor."

"Go. Rock. A. Boat," Northern Water Tribe spat back. "Men don't clean. Women clean. I am a _man_. I do not clean."

"Maybe in _your_ house that's how it works, but not in _mine_," Earth Kingdom crossed her arms defiantly. "And so long as you are in my house, you'll do things the way we do them. Which means that when you walk inside with your boots covered in mud, you'll either take them off right at the door or clean up after yourself to show some respect for your host. Not roll on in, claim the first bedroom you come to, and tell my eldest daughter to make you dumplings while you track mud all over the front hall!"

"Pardon me if your ways are a _little_ different from mine," Northern Water Tribe rolled his eyes. "Aren't you the one always going on about how we have to understand and accept each other's culture? I'm just giving you a nice taste of mine."

Earth Kingdom narrowed her eyes as her own words were used against her, but refrained from speaking. Instead, she took three steps forward and picked up the bucket lying on the ground. Then in one swift motion, she leaned down, seized the handle, straightened, and flung the bucket at the Northern Water Tribe. He sidestepped, one hand shooting up to grab the bucket as it passed. Regrettably for him, he fumbled, and the bucket crashed into the wall behind him.

Footsteps could be heard again, heading towards the room. The door opened to reveal Si Wong Desert, Great Divide, Omashu, and Gaoling. Earth Kingdom glanced at her sons, and made a shooing motion. Omashu rolled his eyes and walked inside, stepping between his mother and fellow Nation. "If this is about the mud, Genji cleaned it up the moment he saw it," Omashu informed them, gesturing towards his younger brother Gaoling. "And Mother, you know we'll kill him if he keeps acting like an ass towards you and Mingmei. Just go get some tea, and I'll talk it over with my brother-in-law here."

"Brother-in—?" Northern Water Tribe yelped. "No, no, Sirikit _promised_ me she would never speak to you again, whaddaya mean brother-in—?"

Earth Kingdom didn't hear any more. She was already walking out the door, planning what snacks she would have with her tea and how she could politely tell the Fire Nation that Northern Water Tribe would be sleeping in her barn.

* * *

"…and that's how I beat England-jerk at his own game!" Sealand finished his story proudly, puffing out his chest. Li held a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing too loudly, and shifted against the pillows propping her up. It wasn't that she couldn't sit up herself, it was just…well…she was too lazy to at the moment. She'd nearly died of food poisoning, wasn't she allowed to be lazy?

"Another win for the great empire of Sealand?" She asked. Sealand just nodded. He'd been telling her stories of his home ever since the doctors finished making sure she was all right. Li was amazed to hear that such a small country—"I'm just young," Sealand had explained—could be so strong. He'd promised that one day he'd take her to his capital, a metal fort in the sea. What could it be like? Great towers of metal, gleaming against the blue ocean?

"Excuse me, but you have visitors," a nurse poked her head into the doorway. "Shall I let them in?"

"Sure thing," Li smiled at the woman. The nurse held the door open, allowing Italy, Austria, Lithuania, and Poland to enter. Italy attempted to tackle-hug her the moment he saw Li, but Austria grabbed the back of his collar to restrain him.

"Show some restraint while she's still bedridden," the aristocrat admonished. "We don't want her having to stay here longer."

"No, she can walk around," Sealand corrected Austria. "It's just that she's wearing a hospital gown, and she's embarrassed."

"Sealand!" Li cried, face reddening on instinct. He clapped a hand over his mouth and mumbled something that sounded like an apology. Lithuania walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"If you want to be a Nation, you have to learn when to keep your mouth shut," Lithuania advised. "Come with me, I'll get you a soda and we can talk."

"Hey, what about me?" Poland put his hands on his hips.

"You stay here with Italy and Austria to keep Li company," Lithuania suggested. Poland gave a noise of consent, and allowed Lithuania to guide Sealand out the door. On his way out, Lithuania called, "I'm glad to see you're all right!" to Li.

"I'm glad you're all right too~!" Italy beamed. He leaned over her bed and gave her a hug, then straightened and grinned. His eyebrows came together to give him an unbelievably smug look. "You know what we should do? We should get you some pasta! That'll help heal you up!"

"Er, I don't think I'm allowed to eat anything other than those 'vitamin drinks' the nurses brought for lunch," Li wrinkled her nose. "They taste disgusting, but apparently it's best if I keep off of solid food for the next day or two. I haven't had anything firm in my stomach for three days."

"Eh?" Italy raised his head in alarm. "It's that bad?"

"She ate England's cooking! Of course it's bad!" Poland threw his hands into the air. "It's, like, a miracle she didn't die! We should take her out to eat when she gets discharged, Italy! I think I remember this really good Polish restaurant in downtown London, their pierogi was, like, amazing! Oh, but their bigos was just to die for, like, Liet said it tasted better than anything he'd ever had! Li, didn't I make you some faworki when we were at Liet's place? Or was it sernik? Ha, but you're looking a bit thin for a girl, so Polish food will fill you out in, like, no time!"

"Um, I suppose we could—" Li tried to recall what the dishes Poland had mentioned were, but came up with a blank. Fortunately for her, Italy and Poland started to talk loudly about whether a Polish or Italian restaurant would be better, effectively neutralizing the need for Li to talk. Grateful, she leaned back against her pillows to listen to them talking. It felt great to be able to sit back and hear other people talking, arguing, laughing, whatever, while not feeling left out of the conversation. She hadn't been able to do this since…since…

Oh. She hadn't been able to do this since she arrived here, over a month ago.

Li's eyelids drooped as she started to wonder why she wasn't bothered by how long she'd been in this world. Time definitely flew with these people, or Nations. They had a way of distracting her from the time, making it seem like only a few hours had gone by when she'd been with them for a full day. Italy's cheerful obliviousness, Lithuania's gentle kindness, Hungary's smile as she helped Li pick out clothing…it all combined to make one huge emotional anesthetic, keeping Li from feeling too sharply the pain of separation from her friends in her own world.

But Ru…what about Ru? Didn't Li need Ru? Wasn't Ru the only person Li could count on to never leave her, the only one who would never abandon Li for any reason? Shouldn't Li be missing Ru like crazy right now, desperate for her to come and save her?

And yet…Li was okay with the time Ru was taking. Studying Poland and Italy talking, the latter gesturing wildly as he tried to convey the delights of pasta, Li wondered if maybe they were the reason why she could live without Ru. It had always been Ru and Li, against the world, when they were children, then later after Kuzon's death.

Kuzon…remembering the child brought a sharp pain to Li's chest, a lump closing off her throat as she struggled to turn her mind to something else. Trying not to think of something only made you think of it more, though, and Li closed her eyes entirely to think.

For such a short time, five and a half years, Li'd had something other than duty and Ru to live for. The first time she saw her little brother, held him in her arms and gazed at that tiny face, she'd realized her own happiness wasn't the only thing the world turned for. Kuzon may not have been Li's own child, but she'd certainly loved him like he was, taking the place of their…"ill"…mother. Being with him, watching him laugh and smile and grow and become strong, it had been the greatest time of Li's life. A time that was lost to her forever…

"Li!" A hand shook her shoulder, and Li's eyes snapped open. It was Italy's hand, and he looked distressed. "Tell me you'd rather eat pasta than bigos!"

"Er…" Li stammered, "I suppose…I'll eat whatever's more convenient for you guys? I'm not the most familiar with either food, so I guess…"

"Then pasta it is!" Italy pronounced, puffing out his chest.

"Whaaa? No way, Polish food is way easier to make!" Poland protested. "Right, Austria?" Oh yeah…Austria was here too.

"I'm reading," he said simply, turning a page. Li's employer (whom she had barely worked for) was sitting in a chair next to the window, reading some thick book in…er, what language had he claimed to speak? German? Whatever it was, he was reading something in it. Probably. Li couldn't tell if it was German, or Polish, or Russian, or Norwegian…it occurred to her that learning how to differentiate between languages might be helpful later on.

"Excuse me?" The nurse who had announced the arrival of Li's guests poked her head into the door one more. "You have two more visitors. Would you like me to let them in?"

"Sure," Li smiled and nodded. The nurse's head vanished from the door, and two more familiar figures appeared. "Hungary! E-England!"

"Li, it's great to see you awake!" Hungary rushed over to Li's bedside and gave her a firm hug. Li hesitated, but returned the gesture. The Nation pulled back a little, arms resting on Li's bed, and eyed her critically. "You're looking a bit pale, but I'd say you're well enough otherwise. So long as you don't eat any more of England's cooking."

"I've told you, I'll never do it again," England muttered behind Hungary. "Li, I'm very sorry for the inconvenience. It's not often I have visitors willing to eat my food, and I had assumed that someone else told you of the risks prior to your visit."

"Like, who would have thought you'd actually try feeding her anything?" Poland butted in. "Am I right, Italy? English food is just so terrible, and he knows it, so why would we think he'd try subjecting a human to that?"

"It…it's not that bad…really…is it…?" England looked mournful. Before Li could say something to soothe his feelings (and also lie, but that was beside the point), Austria closed his book, stood, and clapped a hand onto England's shoulder.

"As Li's employer, I think we need to have a few words," Austria told England seriously. England raised one immensely thick eyebrow, but allowed himself to be guided out of the room. Italy, Poland, Hungary, and Li watched them leave before Italy and Poland returned to what was foremost on their minds: where to take Li to eat once she was discharged.

"I totally think Polish food is so much better," Poland sniffed. "Don't you, like, agree with me, Hungary?"

"Mm, I suppose a nice stew never hurts," Hungary conceded. "But pasta is more gourmet, isn't it? You should try to think about what mood you want to convey before you decide what sort of foods you'll be trying to get."

"Oooh, I never thought about that," Italy looked at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Well, if we're celebrating Li getting out of the hospital, pasta is the only right course of action!"

"Nuh-uh, pierogi would be better!" Poland argued. "And Liet likes Polish food more than Italian…"

"They'll be at this for a while, won't they?" Li sighed happily. She got to rest, she had friends arguing about what they'd eat…life was better than it had been for months.

"I expect so," Hungary chuckled. "In the meantime, why don't I tell you about what's happened while you've been asleep? Japan is flying over to Turkey's house in a few days…"

* * *

England followed Austria through the sterile hallways of the hospital, wrinkling his nose slightly as they reached a spot where the scent of disinfectant was particularly strong. Nurses and doctors passed them with barely a second glance, and the few patients in the hallways weren't so interested in two men not in doctor's coats. Austria turned a corner into a lounge area, with a few doctors on break sitting in chairs or on sofas. He stopped, and turned to face England.

"The nurse who called us into Li's room," he began, "do you know her name?"

"What?" England blinked in surprise. He'd been expecting an admonishment at nearly killing Li, or a question about the cost of paying the hospital (free, by the way—the Crown paid for his expenses), but not something about the nurse. The woman didn't even look a thing like Hungary, so it couldn't be that Austria had a romantic interest in her…

"The nurse," Austria repeated. "I need to ask her something about Li." All right, that made much more sense.

"I'm not sure…Becky? Lisa? Antoinette?" England shrugged. "We could just go ask some of the doctors…?"

"I would rather not let anyone else know of my interest in this," Austria looked away. "It's just…I thought Li spoke to the nurse, earlier. If she did, it may mean Li speaks English."

"Well, she sure doesn't read English," English rubbed the back of his head. "I figured that out when she asked me what my mailbox read as. And from what I've gathered, she can read…at least, she was interested in reading something when she woke up earlier. Sealand texted me to say that Li was awake and wondering if there was anything in her own language for her to read."

"I suppose it's possible that she might speak a derivation of English," Austria's eyes unfocused as he mulled over the possibilities. "But if that is the case, we should determine what symbols she uses to write with. Perhaps I could ask her to write something later, then ask around at the meeting tomorrow during a break to see if anyone recognizes the language…"

"That'd probably work," England agreed. "In the meantime, maybe if I ask for someone to help me with the extra paperwork I could get that nurse to help me with—"

"Oh, there you are!" A woman's voice exclaimed. Austria and England looked up to see the very nurse they had been looking for approaching. She had a clipboard in one hand, the other currently smoothing her blond hair out of her eyes.

"Is it just me, or was that too convenient?" England commented.

"I would have to agree with you there," Austria looked over at him. "It almost makes one wonder if we are but characters in a story written by someone else…someone who really wants this scene to continue a bit longer to avoid a timeskip."

"Definitely a teenaged author," England smiled wryly before raising his hand to wave to the woman, eyes briefly darting to the nametag on her chest. "Hello…Jackie. We were just talking about you. I wanted to look over some paperwork for my friend."

"Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about too," Jackie extended the clipboard to England. "Your refugee friend filled this out earlier, and I was called away to help deal with a vomiting patient right after that, so I only got to look at this now. I figured she was American from her accent, but she must be pulling a prank on me. That or she's bilingual…anyways, she filled the form out in Chinese. Another one of the nurses speaks it, and she translated a little for me."

"Huh? Chinese?" England snatched the clipboard away from the nurse and scanned the first paper on it. Sure enough, Chinese characters were present in every box. Under "Name," the characters 禮物 had been written in pen. The writer was clearly not used to pens, and looked to have done their best to mimic using a brush. There weren't even Arabic numerals: England recognized the Chinese symbols for "ten" and "eight," 十 and 八, under "Age."

"I figure she might have made a mistake," Jackie was saying, oblivious to England's surprise. Austria leaned over to take a look, eyebrows shooting up. "Or is she trying to pull a prank? What do you think?"

"Uhh…well, she's been abroad for a long time…I suppose it was a mistake," England narrowed his eyes in concentration. This would be so much easier if he actually read Chinese. He'd taken Hong Kong into his house to avoid needing to learn it to deal with China, and it wasn't like he'd bother learning a whole new language after most of the Asian countries acquainted themselves with English.

"All right, but I'll need her to fill out new ones in English," Jackie held out a hand, probably expecting England to hand her back the clipboard. He chose to ignore it, and held the clipboard out to Austria instead. After he accepted it, Jackie lowered her hand, looking a little annoyed.

"We can fill out the forms for her," England suggested. "She's probably still tired. We don't want her using Swahili or something on the next one."

"I suppose…but she's supposed to…" Jackie trailed off, biting her lip. "If not her, it should be her legal guardian…"

"That would be me," Austria spoke up. "I took responsibility for her well-being about a month ago. Where can we go to fill out the new forms?"

"To the nurse's station, Mr…?" Jackie trailed off, smiling hesitantly.

"Edelstein…Herr Edelstein," Austria's voice dropped into a heavy German accent. "Shall ve?"

"Oh…sure, Mr. Edelstein," Jackie's smile became more confident. She beckoned to him to follow her, starting to walk in one direction. "I must say, I didn't know you were German. Your accent was very good. How do you manage it so well?"

"Years of practice," Austria replied, voice still accented. He followed her, pausing briefly to nod to England in thanks. "Und, to be precise, I am actually Austrian…"

"Australian?"

"Nein, _Austrian_…!"

"Oh, like that American governor guy, Schwarzenegger!"

"He is not exactly the best example…"

England leaned against a wall, watching the two walk off. Li spoke American English…but she'd filled out the forms in Chinese. Either she was bilingual, which was unlikely as she was still having trouble accepting the thought of other languages, she'd been raised that way, or she was lying and everything was an act.

Thinking about it, the final option was seeming more and more likely by the second…

* * *

Earth Kingdom hesitated, and knocked on the door to her second-largest guest room. She was standing in her hallway, green eyes roving the space in an attempt to keep from thinking about how she was swallowing her pride and apologizing to an absolute pig of a man…Nation…however you cared to term him. The light brown floorboards under her feet creaked slightly as she shifted her weight, the green banners on the walls giving the eye a colorful break from the light gray stone they hung on. Her house was so lovely…and an exact replica of the villa she had once inhabited on the grounds of the Earth King's palace at Ba Sing Se. After she'd left, it had begun to be used as the residence for the Earth King's heir—fitting enough, Earth Kingdom supposed.

"Wha?" A voice grunted from inside the room. It was a little muffled, like the speaker was lying facedown on the pillows.

"It's Toyo," Earth Kingdom used her human name. "I'd like to…speak to you. May I come in?"

"Ehh…? Sure, sure," the voice trailed off into unintelligible mumblings. Earth Kingdom pushed the wooden door open, slipping into the room as quietly as she could. Northern Water Tribe was indeed lying facedown on the guest bed, a green pillow muffling whatever sounds came from his mouth. He was shirtless, the skin of his back looking like it had been scrubbed raw. The sheets around him were wet, and droplets of water clung to his tanned skin.

Earth Kingdom hesitated, unsure of what to say now that she was in the room with him. She was tempted to start in on him again, berating him for his untidy ways. Not that it would help matters, but she might feel better.

Northern Water Tribe beat her, though, speaking before she could. "I was an idiot earlier," he admitted, hauling himself up to his elbows and rolling over. With a grunt, he hauled himself upright to a sitting position, crossing his legs. "It's your house, and I shouldn't be rude to my host. Furthermore, I didn't mean to insult your daughter, I was just hungry and…anxious. That's all."

"Anxious?" Earth Kingdom's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What do you mean by that?"

"I…uh…crap, didn't mean to say it like that…" Northern Water Tribe put a hand to his forehead and grimaced. "It's just, I'm kinda not sure about this whole thing, going back and all, so I'm being an idiot right now, and…well, aren't you worried?"

"Worried about what? The state of things?" Earth Kingdom blinked. "I trust that our people will handle the Revolution and keep the Four Nations, us, from dying. Our rulers will not sit idly by and let their people be enslaved to a foolish ideal."

"Not that, I'm better with that part," Northern Water Tribe waved a hand dismissively. "It's all fighting and killing and stuff, I can handle that…I meant, what will our people think?"

"Think…?" Earth Kingdom's brows knitted together. "You've lost me."

"What will they think of us, their Nations, who abandoned them over a hundred years ago to live in the Spirit World?" Northern Water Tribe clarified. His face flushed slightly as he told her, "I'm…worried. About what my people will think of me."

"Worried about…?" Earth Kingdom finally realized what he meant. Northern Water Tribe had been one of the more involved Nations of their world, fighting side-by-side with his warriors and slapping them on the backs after battles while promising to buy drinks. His approach was completely different from the "rule from afar" strategy Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom had adopted with their people. Where they would stand next to their ruler, or a commanding officer, during a battle, Northern Water Tribe fought on the front lines, risking it all to be with his people.

How had he felt when the others agreed they must detach themselves from their world, so that their actions would not influence those of their rulers or allow a manipulative mind to twist a whole Nation into obedience through words spoken to one person? Northern Water Tribe was on the streets of his home fighting the night Princess Yue, a dear member of his royal family, sacrificed herself and became the moon. His angry rants against the Fire Nation when he found out had been disclosed to Earth Kingdom later by a Water Tribe warrior on the day of Fire Lord Zuko's coronation, which Earth Kingdom had attended out of respect for the boy who sought to end the War. Fire Nation had known enough to stay away from her, and not tempt her anger.

"You know what?" Earth Kingdom blurted. "I'm worried too." Northern Water Tribe raised an eyebrow, and she continued. "I'm worried that I've been gone so long my old house is going to be dusty and have all the furniture rearranged. I'm worried my Earth Queen might not be able to rule half so well as her father did. I'm worried that when I go back and tell my people who and what I am, they'll spit on me for not staying, to inspire them with pride for their Nation, for me. And…" her throat closed off. "I'm worried that…that…that I'll have to see my children die under the rule of the Tóngyī Shìjiè. Here we don't feel the effects of our world so much, but when we return, what will happen to my babies?"

"Babies?" Northern Water Tribe barked out a laugh. "I wouldn't let your sons hear you call them babies, if I was you…that scary one, your oldest boy, probably wouldn't like it too much."

"Oh, he's used to it," Earth Kingdom shook her head. "The most he'll do is sigh and roll his eyes. He knows not to mess with Mommy."

"I'm sure he does," Northern Water Tribe's lips curled up on the left side. "So, it seems we both have a problem with returning. Did saying it out loud help you feel better?" The sarcastic tone of his last sentence, particularly on "feel," was more than a little annoying. Determined not to rise to the bait, Earth Kingdom secured her hands behind her back and raised an eyebrow, face as neutral as she could make it.

"Yes," she spoke coolly. Of course he would ruin the moment by being taunting. Should she have expected anything less from him? "Do you?"

"Nope," Northern Water Tribe flopped back onto the bed. He turned his head to eye a door that led to the guest bath, a natural hot spring situated in a courtyard. "Though I'm thinking taking a hot bath might. Could get used to this weather, this is nice, is your home always so warm? Maybe I should stay over more often…"

"Don't expect an invitation," Earth Kingdom rolled her eyes. "And judging by how wet your bed is, haven't you already taken a bath? How many do you need? Not that I'm complaining, another bath might help with the smell…"

"Ooh, what happened to being nice to me?" Northern Water Tribe taunted. "You do realize we don't have hot springs up north, right? None I know of, at least…they're great. Warm water and all…you aren't warm very often at my place, have you noticed that? Oh, by the way, sorry. I'm being an idiot again, aren't I?"

"'Idiot' wasn't quite the word I had in mind," Earth Kingdom sighed. This man was like the water his people named themselves for…dizzying currents that swept you any which way they pleased, taking you along for the ride, with a few calm spots included. It was time to leave, before his ever-shifting mind (and extremely short attention span) induced her to do something she would regret. She was about to close the door behind her when Northern Water Tribe spoke again.

"Flamey's going to talk to my sister next, right?" He called.

"I…was under the impression," Earth Kingdom answered warily. "Free Nomads is supposed to be down south visiting her, with his father. Foggy Swamp sent a letter earlier today saying he was coming to call on me here in a day."

"That leaves Air Temple…" Northern Water Tribe muttered sleepily, voice almost too soft to hear. "Him and his girl Republic…wonder how they'll take to the idea…hope Republic ain't too scared…"

Earth Kingdom didn't reply. She shut the door to the guest room, waiting for a minute to hear the distinctive snores of the Northern Water Tribe before walking off. He definitely wasn't the best guest she'd ever had…though, like the ocean, he might have some depth to him.

Might.

* * *

**Aaaand, that's the chapter. Please review to tell me what you think, how I can improve my writing, and what the square root of pi is. *pause* Okay, maybe the last one isn't so important to me...but the first two are! **


	39. Chunnel

**Me: Alix Cohen is evil and recommends awesome webcomics that steal my sleep.**

**Li: Ignore her. A webcomic called "Genius Girl" was recommended to her last night, and she spent too much time reading it before going to bed. She does not own Avatar or Hetalia, only me and other OCs that were created with a friend. Please enjoy the latest chapter of Fire Lily.**

* * *

Li's head jerked up as the train rattled, shaking her from her doze. She blinked some of the sleep from her eyes and glanced around the compartment, wondering how long she'd been out. Hungary glanced up from her book and met Li's eyes, smiling at her before looking back down at the page. Italy and Romano, sitting on the same side as Li, were slumped against the outer wall of the train, chests moving softly in sleep. Austria, sitting next to Hungary, was staring at a piece of paper with bars on it, occasionally making strange notes.

Attention wandering to the window, Li again marveled at the thought of where they were. A tunnel underground, the "Chunnel" as someone had jokingly referred to it, that went under the floor of the sea itself! Earthbenders could create smaller versions of this to safely pass under tinier bodies of water, Waterbenders could create air capsules to walk on the ocean floor, but this! This was amazing! No Bending was involved in this: it was pure human effort. And it worked!

Her stomach rumbled, and Li recalled that she had declined breakfast. True to their word, the day after her recovery from the English food-induced coma, Italy and Poland had taken Li to an international restaurant for supper. Lithuania and the other Baltics had joined them, with Hungary and Austria citing prior plans to excuse themselves. The lot of them stuffed their bellies to the point where Italy—and his brother, who had tagged along—were moaning about needing to throw up. Somewhat disgusting when you thought about it, but it conveyed the fact that everyone was more than full. Before getting onto the train the next morning—this morning, as it was the same day—Li had still been full, and chosen not to eat the "cereal" America offered in lieu of England's…porridge. If that noxious-smelling goop was supposed to be the same thing as the porridge Li had been offered before.

"Where was the food—uh, dining—car again?" Li asked Austria. He lifted his gaze from his barred paper briefly, then returned his attention to it, speaking as he scribbled.

"Two cars towards the front," he muttered. "There should be something left from lunch." Lunch had already passed? No wonder Li was so hungry. Careful not to disturb the Italies, she rose from her seat and exited the compartment.

Nobody was in the hallway, and after quickly re-orienting herself as to which way was front (or south, as the train was heading that direction) Li set out for the dining car. She felt a bit awkward as she passed a compartment filled with normal humans, who looked at her curiously through the window of the compartment door, but shook it off. Passing to the next car was a bit scary, as she had to go outside the cars themselves to get to the next one in line, but she managed it without falling and dying—a possibility that, yes, crossed her mind, and more than once.

Only two people were in the dining car: a blond man and a blonde girl, the man in a white dress shirt (or what the Nations here considered dressy) and slacks, the girl in a pretty pink dress. The girl looked up when Li entered the car, her companion pointedly ignoring anything but his plate. Something in Li's memory pinged, but she couldn't place where she had seen them before. Were they Nations too? Most of the "European" Nations—those situated on a continent called "Europe," which Li thought was where she was now—were taking the train to the mainland in France, and dispersing to their respective homes from there.

The chance to greet the two maybe-Nations without being awkward flew off, and Li scanned the train car for someplace to get food. How did the dining services work, again? Ah, there was a table of food at one end of the car: you must get it there. Li walked over, passing the two blonds on the way, and picked up a plate from the end of the food table. There wasn't much of a selection: some breads, a bowl of lettuce, a platter of meats and vegetables squished between two slices of bread…it was at times like these that Li wished for Fire Nation foods, like smoked sea slug or fire flakes. And tea. England's tea was better than what most of the other Nations had given her so far, but it tasted strange to Li. "Earl Grey" could never compare to a steaming cup of jasmine tea…or Fire Nation Spice Tea.

Deciding to be safe rather than sorry, Li avoided the bread-meat-vegetable-bread things and nuts, picking up three rolls of bread and placing them on her plate. There was a bowl filled with ice that had clear bottles of water and other beverages at the very end of the table, far away from the plates. Unsure what was in most of the bottles, Li selected one she knew was water and went to sit down.

She wound up a little ways away from the two yellow-haired maybe-Nations. Li took a bite of bread, nose wrinkling as she realized it was a little stale, and chewed. Her eyes wandered to the back of the blonde girl's head, then to the girls' companion. He was sitting so that he faced Li, but his eyes were focused down on his food. Li lowered her eyes to her plate, afraid she would start staring otherwise.

The food really wasn't that good, was it? Italy had mentioned something about bringing his own lunch, but Li hadn't been paying much attention. They'd boarded the train mid-morning, and then there had been a delay with setting out because of engine troubles. Lunch should have been…not long after Li was out, actually. What time was it? How long had she been asleep? Maybe she should have asked Hungary before leaving the compartment…

"Mon ami, I do not see why you would want the terrible food from this train when you could eat something in Paris that moi has made…" Li looked up to see a Nation she vaguely recalled being referred to as France enter the dining compartment. He had two other Nations with him, Prussia and Spain. Spain was holding a tomato—not eating it, just holding it, occasionally rubbing a thumb over the surface.

"The awesome me's too hungry to wait!" Prussia cackled. "Hey, they have some sandwiches left!" He strode over to the buffet and grabbed several of the bread-meat-vegetable-bread things—which, apparently, were called sandwiches—and started to stuff one into his mouth. The blond man made an annoyed sound and whispered something to his companion, too softly for Li to catch. France noticed them, and walked over with a grin.

"Switzerland, Liechtenstein!" He clapped a hand onto the man's shoulder. "How are you doing? I didn't hear much from you at the meeting! You didn't accept my invitation to dinner with the other European countries the first day, either…"

"Of course not," the man huffed. "Who would want to eat with you? And besides, Austria said he was going…if I'd eaten with him around, everything would have tasted bitter…"

"But Austria didn't even show up!" France laughed. "You went and ate with the Asians for nothing!"

"Not true," the man defended himself. "I got to hear how Japan was doing. And it was free, because China told Korea that if he invented money he could stand to pay for everyone's meal."

"How very like you, Switzerland," France chuckled. He leaned forward and picked up the girl's hand. "Liechtenstein, you are looking very well today. Is your economy doing well?"

"Yes, it is, thank you," Liechtenstein nodded. Switzerland, the blond man, harrumphed and swatted France's hand away from Liechtenstein.

"Don't put your perverted hands on my little sister," Switzerland snapped. He stood up and shoved his empty plate towards the middle of the table. "Come on, Liechtenstein, we're done. I don't want you around this guy more than you have to be."

"All right," Liechtenstein followed Switzerland's example in standing, picking up their empty plates. "What should I do with these, bruder?"

"Leave 'em," Switzerland put a hand over Liechtenstein's and gently lowered the plates back to the table. "There should be a cleaning staff or something to pick up after us. Let's go." Without a word to France, Prussia, Spain, or Li, Switzerland grabbed his sister's hand and pulled her out of the train car. The door out of the car shut loudly: it couldn't be called a slam, but it definitely wasn't gentle.

"Well that was rude," France huffed, placing his hands on his hips. "I only asked after her economy…"

"Be happy he didn't shoot ya," Prussia rolled his eyes and stuffed half of a sandwich into his mouth. Through the sandwich, he forced out, "Switzerland guards Liechtenstein like a mother hawk guards its eggs."

"But then he'd be a woman," Spain pointed out. "Hola, Li. How are you today?"

"Hi, I'm fine," Li gave Spain a polite smile and tried to eat faster. She wasn't in much of a mood to talk, and it had been so long since she last saw Spain that she didn't know what to say to him. Plus, Prussia sort of worried her…

"Ah, mon amie, I did not see you!" France dived over and sat across from Li. "You will be staying with me tonight, as well as Espagne. I hope to show you around Paris this afternoon, as soon as we arrive, though there will not be enough time to do so properly. Perhaps if you come for another visit, hm?"

"Um…yeah, maybe," Li nodded hesitantly. "But, after Austria's house is fixed, I'll probably have to stay so I can work."

"Ahh, that's no problem," France waved a hand dismissively. "You can always visit on weekends, or take a train in the morning on your days off. Life is too short not to live it to the fullest! And Paris is alive with life!"

"We'll see," Li played with a crumb on the table. "Um…actually, there's something I was wanting to ask, if that's okay…"

"Of course, mon amie!" France beamed. "What would you like to know?"

"Um…well, the countries all have personifications…but, is it just countries?" Li looked down in embarrassment, unsure if she was asking something that was common knowledge here. "Are there, you know, cities or regions that have been personified as well?"

"Hm?" France's eyebrows shot up. "An excellent question! And yes, it's not only countries. There are others, such as Japan's prefectures. Fukushima is very ill, as are his neighbors, thanks to the recent incident with the nuclear power plant…but I suppose that is not so interesting to a young woman such as yourself. Tell me, what sort of things do interest you?"

"Huh?" Li looked up in surprise. "W-well…I like history? It's fascinating, to think that people from hundreds or even thousands of years ago can still be remembered today through writings or carvings they left behind."

"Oho, then you've spoken to the right person, Cherie!" France leaned forward eagerly. "As a Nation, I've lived through more history than you could dream! Ask me anything, about anytime in the history of France, and I can tell you what happened down to the meal I ate for breakfast that morning!"

"Really?" Li felt herself start to smile eagerly, and pushed her plate of food aside. "All right…since I don't know anything about French history, why don't you tell me the basics?"

"I would be delighted to," France began to trace circles on the table with his right index finger. "Now, I was originally a part of a larger land called Gallia. A group of people called the Franks conquered the area in the fifth century, and I was first recognized as being independent in the ninth century. Over the years, I grew into a strong young Nation, fighting constantly with England. Through my superior civilization and fashionable lifestyle, I was able to conquer him at the turn of the first millennia. He threw me out, but we continued to fight after that until the Entente Cordiale made us allies. Even now, we still disagree on most everything, despite my attempt to patch things up back during the Suez Canal Crisis. Prussia, mon ami, shut your mouth and eat your sandwiches." Prussia shrugged and complied, leaving whatever he had been intending to say unsaid.

"So, you and England are rivals? No wonder he didn't have anything good to say about you," Li breathed a sigh of relief. England hadn't had the best stories about his neighbor, but if they were rivals then the stories were likely exaggerated. Li's anxiety about staying with someone like what England had described were easing off after actually starting a conversation with France.

"Non, he has never had anything good to say about me," France shrugged. "We have both hurt the other so much over the years, it is second nature to us now. He was conquered, we fought the Hundred Year's War, he defeated Napoleon at Trafalgar…"

Li stopped listening at "Hundred Year's War." Her mind immediately made the connection between that and the War between the Fire Nation and the rest of her world. She twitched involuntarily, nearly choking on the bite of bread she had in her mouth. France noticed her reaction and stopped speaking, brows knitting in puzzlement.

She had to say something. "Umm…wh-what happened during your…'Hundred Year's War'?" Li tried to recover her composure, glancing over at Prussia and Spain. Prussia was still stuffing sandwiches into his mouth, not paying attention to his companions at all, and Spain was playing around with his tomato. There was little chance either had noticed Li's reaction.

"The Hundred Year's War…" France murmured, eyes growing distant. Li returned her full attention to him, trying to stop her heart from beating so quickly. He couldn't know a thing about the War from Li's home: it was just a coincidence that his own people had experienced a war with a similar length. "It began as a dispute over my throne," France explained. His voice was distant, as if he was in another place entirely. "England's king had a claim, but I would not accept an Englishman on my throne. England declared war, and for a hundred years we fought…sheep, the crown, so many things influenced our conflict. He took my upper half, England that is, and all hope seemed lost…but then…" Something misted over France's eyes, and his voice rasped for a moment before he finished with, "but then a savior appeared."

"Who?" Li spoke softly, realizing this was an important subject for France. He took a deep breath and wiped at his eyes, then smiled at Li.

"Her name was Jeanne d'Arc."

CRASH!

"Woah! My bad!" Prussia yelped, bending down to pick up the broken plate. "Sorry, it slipped…yo, Spain, come help me, will ya?"

"Eh…but mi tomate…" Spain protested halfheartedly. He set his tomato down on a table and went to help Prussia clean up the plate.

"Do you need more help?" Li offered, half-rising. She didn't really want to end her conversation with France, but if she could help she would. Doing people favors was a good way to keep them happy, and not wanting to kick her out of their homes when she had nowhere else to go.

"Nah, the awesome me's got it covered," Prussia shook his head. Li settled back into her seat, grateful she wouldn't have to get up. Picking up her last piece of bread, she looked to France expectantly.

"So…Jeanne, you said?" Li prompted him. France looked down at the table and smiled sadly.

"Yes. Jeanne d'Arc," he confirmed. "She claimed to have received visions from God, instructing her to save France. It was thanks to her that I managed to drive England out of my lands. With her help, we liberated Orleans and Reims, then crowned Charles VII as King."

"Really?" Li asked, curious to know more. "What did she do next?"

"She attempted to completely drive the English out of my land," France continued. "However, she began to lose, and was injured several times. Eventually, she was captured by England, convicted as a witch, and burned at the stake."

"As a witch…?" Li's eyes widened. "W-was she one?"

"No," France shook his head. "She was given messages from God that told her to liberate my home from England. Once Charles VII had been crowned, her mission was complete and the voices left. After that her winning streak vanished, and she fell. Ninety years or so ago, she was declared a saint by the pope. I was very touched."

"What's a…wait, I remember Romano telling me. Never mind," Li bobbed her head to France apologetically. "So, Jeanne was killed by England? What happened after that?"

"The war was won by moi, of course," France leaned back in his seat, "and Charles VII did his best to clear her name. He was scared to raise a finger to help her when she was captured, but after her death he began trying to make up for it. Part of it may have been my anger with him…"

"Were you and Jeanne friends?" Li questioned, picking at her bread.

"Friends…more like lovers," France smiled bitterly. "She was beautiful and strong and kind, full of life and the love of God. Her mission was to save and protect me. It was only natural for me to be drawn to her, and afterwards…well, I can't help but wonder if part of why England burned her was to spite me."

"L-lovers?" Li stammered, turning red on instinct. "So the two of you were…"

"Oh, we were not intimate," a corner of France's lips turned up wryly, "but we considered ourselves lovers. Had she lived, I have no doubt we would have been married eventually, me under my human name. At times I wonder if it best that she did not live, because I would have had to watch her grow old and die while I remained the eternally-young Nation I am. Angleterre experienced it with Queen Elizabeth I, and I do not envy him the torment he experienced as she fell victim to age."

Li frowned. "I don't see how that would work, France."

"Just think, mon amie, just think!" France urged. "Beth and England were happy while she was young, but once she began to age she felt too ugly to love him romantically. He never once thought her undesirable, even when she was wrinkled and had black teeth, but she was ashamed nonetheless. They married when she ascended to the throne, although for political reasons they kept it a secret. Not being able to make love to the woman nobody knows you are married to…it might be why England spent so much time at sea as a pirate during that time."

"England was a pirate?" Li's mind was processing France's words as quickly as it could, but her focus was a bit off topic. "Er. I meant to say I don't see why he would marry her if they had to keep it a secret for political reasons. If it wasn't politically advantageous in the first place, why would they get married at all?"

"Because of love, mon amie, love!" France's hands raised, and he started gesturing wildly as he spoke. "Love is what makes life worth living! Love is the bread of the hungry, the wine of the thirsty, the medicine of the sick! L'amour est ce qui maintient tourner le monde! And I, as you may have heard, am the country of love!"

"Okay," Li put a piece of bread in her mouth to avoid having to say anything more. France's enthusiasm on the subject made her a little uncomfortable.

"And not just romantic love, though that is, of course, the best kind," France rambled on. "Love of all kinds! Such as fatherly love, which I feel for the poor little Nation of Canada, whom I raised until England snatched him away! At least I am the only one ma petite au Canada calls papa! England raised him as a brother after snatching him away, that bâtarde anglaise…"

"What's wrong with brothers?" Li immediately went on defensive. There was nothing wrong with having a brother! "Isn't it nice that…umm, whatever you called him, got a sibling out of it?"

"He already had a sibling, America," France harrumphed. "But England wasn't content with having just l'Amérique, no, he had to take mon Canada as well…or at least, his upper half…"

"That's sad," Li nodded, eyes darting around in hopes of finding something to distract herself or France from the current topic. "Um…oh, how do you know Prussia and Spain?"

"Hm? Oh, we were allied once against Austria," France shrugged. "I joined Prussia against Austria, and because I had recently put Spain under my control he was forced to aid us. Prussia wanted to expand his territory, I wanted to be stronger, and England had allied himself with Austria. Spain only became passionate about the fight once he realized he could take Italy under his control, as well as Romano."

"What? Italy was conquered?" Li sat up in alarm. Spain seemed nice enough to her, but…well, several things he had said while she was staying at Italy's had the Fire Nation girl wondering about him.

"Italy spent much of his life being conquered," France laughed.

"I heard Italy mentioned?" Prussia popped his head up over the back of France's chair. Li started and dropped a chunk of bread on the floor. "Yo Frankreich, what're you two talking about that Italy would get brought up?"

"History," France replied smoothly. "Would you care to contribute, la Prusse? I believe I was telling Li about the War of Austrian Succession, as it is known today."

"A history lesson? I'm so there!" Prussia vaulted over into the seat next to France, wincing after he landed, and slammed a hand onto the table. "All right, so, Austria had a chick as his ruler, and my king at the time, Frederick the Great, wanted to expand our territory. We told Austria that unless he gave us Silesia, this really sweet land we wanted, we wouldn't recognize his ruler 'cuz she was a girl. Austria wouldn't give up Silesia willingly, so I got Frankreich and Spanien to join me and a couple of my other brothers in kicking Austria's ass. We got Silesia, but Austria's boss called in Hungary and I figured that since I had Silesia like I wanted there was no point in fighting them anymore, so I made a peace treaty with Austria and let him and France duke it out."

"You left your friend to fight alone?" Li's eyebrows shot up. "Why would you do that? If you were winning, you should have stayed in the fight and taken the rest of…um, but I'm technically working for Austria, so I should take his side in this, shouldn't I…?"

"It's all the same, mon amie," France laughed. "As Nations, whatever friendships we form are subject to the will of our people. Everything we feel towards our fellow Nations, we feel because our land and inhabitants feel it. There are those few humans who we are able to form attachments to, despite our state of being, but they are few and far between. Of course, casual friendships between humans and Nations always pop up, but they are usually only brief."

Li wasn't sure how to respond. So casually, France had just dismissed the concept of friendship between humans and Nations. If Nations and humans weren't meant to be friends, what did that make Li to the Nations she thought she had befriended already? Was she a curiosity, to be examined and debated over but ultimately thrown away? Lithuania, Hungary, the Italies—did they feel the friendship she was feelings towards them?

France must have realized his words had caused Li worry, because he reached forward and covered her hand with his sympathetically. "In case you're curious," he informed her, "Italy is one of those Nations who is able to make friends with humans easily, as is Hungary. They seem to be truly fond of you."

"Oh, th-thank you," Li looked away. Spain, who had been toying with his tomato in a seat near the door, took the opportunity to speak.

"Romano likes you too," he called. "When I visited Italy's house, Romano told me he couldn't trust you with me for a day and a half, so he's going to visit while you're staying at my place. He would have liked to stay with us in Paris too, but he has a lot of late paperwork at his house that he needs to get caught up on before his boss will let him make social calls."

"The Italies are suckers when a girl's around," Prussia sniggered. "But they've got good taste, so you must be cool enough. I'll stop by when you get back to that aristocrats place and introduce you to some good German bands!"

"Oui, if the Italies like you then you cannot be a bad person," France agreed. "I'm sure you'll be able to get along with the other Nations. It can be nice to relax and act like a normal human sometimes. And if you're having trouble, just call Big Brother France for a little advice!"

"You'll just tell her to sleep with them or something!" Prussia jeered, poking France in the cheek. "Aren't you the pervert of the world? Hey, maybe I should stick around to keep you from trying anything on Italy's friend!"

"Just like old times, hm?" France chuckled. "The three of us joining forces to lure away Austria's maid! Not that she's doing much cleaning, non? We can take her out drinking tonight in Paris! I know some bars that would be perfect."

"Yeah!" Prussia cheered, raising his hands in the air. "You'd better pay for all the bier the awesome me can drink, 'cause I'll be going at it till dawn! Spain, whatcha think?"

"I suppose a little wine wouldn't hurt," Spain smiled. "But I thought Li wasn't good at holding alcohol? Didn't she faint after drinking some of Turkey's raki?"

* * *

"This is all the information I was able to gather from the nurse," Austria gestured to the file in Germany's hand. The two were sitting in Germany and Prussia's compartment, reviewing several new documents they had obtained. "She was quite sure Li's accent was American. Next we should determine why Li used Chinese characters to fill out the hospital's paperwork. It might give us some insight into where to look for records of her existence."

"Ja, that sounds reasonable," Germany nodded. His eyes scanned the papers slowly, taking in every word. "How is she doing?"

"Her recovery is going well," Austria picked a plastic cup of coffee and took a drink. "She was walking the evening she woke up, and was discharged the next day. I understand she went out to eat with the Italies, Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, and Latvia that night, while Hungary and I attended a concert in London."

"Good, good," Germany set down the file in his hands and picked up one sitting on the seat next to him. Opening it, he read the first sentence and frowned. "No results anywhere in Europe?"

"If she speaks English with an American accent, we shouldn't be surprised," Austria reminded his companion. "I will contact my ambassador in America and see if he can ask around. Will you do the same with yours?"

"Ja," Germany replied. He focused on the file before him, his eyebrows drawing together in concentration. Austria took another drink of his coffee, sighing at the taste, and set it down.

"English coffee," he muttered. Germany gave no reply. Austria debated listening to classical music on the iPod Hungary had given him on his last birthday, but decided it unlikely that he would be able to work the device properly. Perhaps when he arrived at his home he could book a seat at a concert, then ignore his paperwork and spend the afternoon playing piano.

* * *

Huo stumbled over a rock, and righted himself before Ru or Wulong would need to help. The lifeless forest had given way to mountains of barren rock, with small animals darting here and there. Yue hovered about half a foot over the ground, intent on following the small light that guided her towards the realm Li's soul had been sent to. Ru was not far behind, leaping over the rocks in her path without paying them any heed. Wulong, used to large leaps, was staying several yards behind Ru so she could yell at Huo to hurry up.

"Oi! Idiot Avatar!" Wulong shouted. "We're not gonna wait for you!" The forest spirit made a point of dislodging a rock so that it fell directly into Huo's path. It hit his foot, and he nearly slipped again before catching his balance.

"We don't have all day, Huo!" Ru paused to snap at him. "It's been three days since we got here, and I won't delay because of you!"

Huo didn't answer them. He had two reasons: one, he was too out-of-breath to speak, and two, he knew whatever he said wouldn't help. Wulong had retreated into rudeness and sarcasm, her only defense mechanism against the emotional pain she was undoubtedly feeling. Ru had fixed herself into a one-track mentality of finding Li as quickly as possible. Neither of them was going to listen to rational arguments as to why they should calm down and relax.

Well…Huo supposed he wouldn't listen to any rational arguments for rest if he was in their shoes. Ru's family had served Li's for over a hundred years, since an incident in the Colonies had left the noble Jings indebted to Fire Lord Zuko and his heirs. Li and Ru had been together since Ru was four and Li was a newborn. Huo had witnessed Ru's devotion to her duty and her charge in the past four years he had spent training in the Fire Nation under Master Qien, then on the run from the Tóngyī Shìjiè and towards the Northern Water Tribe. He understood how…what had happened would undermine Ru's confidence in her ability to fulfill her duty. Sweet Nüwa, as far as Ru was concerned, she had already failed!

And Wulong…the forest spirit talked big, but Huo and the rest of Team Avatar—as his group of friends so affectionately called themselves—had spent a few weeks in her forest. Huo had seen how lonely the spirit was. Nobody lived in the boundaries of Wulong Forest, and few people crossed through it. There was supposed to be a priest, but with no locals…well, it was hard to find someone to dedicate their life to you if there was no one around. Li had been more than open to befriending a lonely child, after having helped save Wulong's life. That sort of thing tended to make people good friends anyways.

"Stop dilly-dallying!" Wulong called. "I'd have thought the Avatar could stand a little exercise!"

"Sh!" Yue half-turned as she glided along, a small frown on her face. "I need to concentrate or I may lose the trail."

"Sorry," Wulong muttered, and came to a full stop as Ru paused to fix a glare on her. Huo kept following Yue, bending over to pat Wulong on the shoulder as he passed the spirit. She glanced up at him sullenly, then overtook the Avatar in a few leaps.

It was too bad the situation was so tense, Huo reflected. Otherwise it would be a perfect opportunity to get to know each other better. But they kind of had a good reason to be serious…they were looking for their friend's stolen soul.

And…Huo supposed he had to blame himself for the situation, at some level. It seemed so distant, so unreal, that his own actions could have led to this. Just teasing…he had just been teasing Li! How was he supposed to know that her temper had gotten so short? Or that she would storm out of the residence Team Avatar had been granted? Was he supposed to be all-knowing, in addition to having to help sort out the world's problems and start learning Airbending and Waterbending?

Ru had snapped at him about it earlier…and Huo had blocked it out. He couldn't afford to let himself realize he was part of the reason Li was gone, or he might have to stop and deal with the fact. Stopping was bad—stopping kept him from getting Li back safely. Stopping let him think, and feel, and realize just how hopeless the whole situation was.

So he couldn't stop. Huo felt rocks slip underneath his feet, and steadied himself. He couldn't, wouldn't stop, wouldn't let that icy dread fill his stomach and blind him to all thoughts but the hopeless reality of the situation.

He couldn't—

Ru landed too heavily on a larger rock, and her body weight dislodged it from the slope. Wulong was in mid-leap, and collided with Ru as the mortal girl fell backwards. Huo saw them start to fall towards a dip in the rocks, just off to the side of his path, and darted forwards, arms extended to catch them…

…and all three fell down the hole in the side of the mountain.

* * *

Yue paused as she reached the top of the mountain, looking back to make sure the others were still with her. Her eyes darted frantically over the rocky landscape for a minute as she realized they were gone, finally settling on the hole. The light hovering above her palm went out, dismissed for the time being, as Yue realized what must have happened. She glided down to the hole, and peered in.

Darkness. With a sigh, the Moon Spirit began to descend down the hole. Perhaps she should have warned the others about the possibility of falling into a portal to another mortal world…

* * *

**Li: Please review and tell us what you liked, disliked, how you think the story could improve, etc. Karen's sleep-deprived and not quite sane at the moment, so she's going to take a nap now. Then try and finish Genius Girl.**


	40. Paris

**Me: Hey there! Sorry about the lack of a chapter last week, I had a test and a presentation, then Thanksgiving with my family. Time was short, and I had to spend most of it doing stuff.**

**Li: Karen does not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or Hetalia Axis Powers. She is but a fanwriter, borrowing characters, worlds, and all that, for a story. Please enjoy the latest chapter of Fire Lily.**

**Me: Also, it looks like next week will be very busy for me, so I may not be able to post a chapter then. After that, I should be good for the rest of the year.**

**Li: Sadly.**

* * *

The view of Paris from atop the Eiffel Tower was stunning. Buildings and monuments stretched out all around, letting the observer grasp just how vast Paris truly was. It met the horizon with no sign of the city stopping, proving it to be a metropolis just as vast as Ba Sing Se, if not larger.

Li realized she was holding her breath, and let it out as slowly as she could. The air was colder at the top of the Eiffel Tower, and snow clung to the structure and the city below like a frozen blanket of white. Blanket…Li had never understood why snow was called a blanket. Weren't blankets supposed to be warm? Snow wasn't warm. Although Li had heard stories about hunters from the Water Tribes creating little caves of snow and curling up in them to wait out blizzards…

"Magnificent, is it not?" France spoke from beside Li, hands resting on the rails. He raised one hand to sweep it in a grand motion, showcasing the city in front of him. "Paris, my capital and my heart. City of Lights. It is even grander at night, when the sky is dark and the lights are on. Then the whole city seems to be almost afire, glowing with the life that runs through it."

"I'll bet," Li whispered. She could only imagine how it would be…the buildings aglow, radiating light from each window, the streetlamps illuminating the snow underneath them…

It was early morning, with gray clouds that threatened either snow or rain covering the sun. The weak light that filtered in through the clouds was diluted, unable to give Li the boost in energy of direct sunlight. She had gone to bed early the previous night as France took his friends Spain and Prussia out drinking: it was the only reason Li was awake now. Her old pattern of "asleep at sunset, awake at sunrise" from before the Tóngyī Revolution had gone out the window while traveling to the North Pole, and was only now trying to make a comeback.

A gust of wind blew some snow from above onto Li and France. Li squeaked and ducked down, brushing snow off of her hair and shoulders. France laughed and shook his head like a Polar Bear Dog, flinging snow off of himself and onto Li.

"Hey, France," Li began as she cleaned the snow from her coat, "why did all the other Nations warn me to beware you trying to grope me? You haven't tried anything on me since we met."

"Well, that may in part be because you would try to throw me into a wall if I did," France pointed out. Li had to admit that was true. "But it is also because you are a nice young woman who has issues with physical contact, or so I have gathered."

"Umm…with most people, yeah," Li admitted. "Italy acts like a little kid, so I don't mind him because I like children, but otherwise…"

"I must admit to some curiosity of how this came about," France leaned against the railing, "but I will allow you to decide when and who you tell that to. If you are not ready to speak about it, it is not my place to press the issue."

"Thank you," Li was surprised by France's words. Her friends had told her to talk things out with them, that discussion of what happened would make her feel better. They'd had to fight tooth and nail for Li to give them even the barest of outlines. It wasn't that anything had happened to Li that she _couldn't_ talk about, or was too embarrassed to talk about, it was just…

It was just…Li was so scared to tell them of _why_ she'd done it. How did you tell people you'd been fighting for your life with that you'd decided your own survival meant nothing, and you had given yourself up to the enemy? Ru knew exactly what had happened, but Li knew she could trust Ru not to tell anyone else. Ru's…well, Li wasn't entirely sure what Si was to Ru, but the best term was boyfriend… Ru's boyfriend Si probably had a fair idea of what had happened, but he wasn't the type to spill other people's secrets.

So how do you tell friends you've only recently made about the dumbest decision of your life? Li could just see their faces, stunned and disappointed as she explained to them what she had done and why. Ming would try to give her some sort of pep talk, Jia too, while Xing would want to discuss _why _she felt that way, and "had she ever felt like this before?", and "would she do it again?" No, of course she wouldn't do it again; she'd already learned her lesson, thank you! Couldn't she just forget it had happened in the first place?

Kai thought something had happened to Li, something private that Li was too ashamed to admit to. But that wasn't true, nobody had done a thing like…like _that_ to her. Li's new aversion to touch was because of Gege's attempts to refine his powers on her.

That ability Gege had…no known human before now had possessed it, and Li's experiences with it had chilled her to the bone. Gege still didn't know how to use it to its fullest potential, thank Pele, but he was rapidly narrowing down its potential uses. And what he could do with it…just thinking about it soured Li's stomach, and gripped her chest with an icy hand. She prayed to the spirits Gege's powers were limited, that they could be blocked, because they were too frightening in their possibilities.

"Mon amie, would you like to hear something strange?" France placed a hand gently on Li's shoulder. Li jumped at the contact, startled from her thoughts, and looked over at France curiously. "I promise it will take your mind off of things."

"Sure?" Li nodded hesitantly. It began to snow, and Li drew her coat closer about herself. France removed his hand to fold it with the other before his face. "What is it?"

"Last spring, something very strange and very important happened to me," France smiled softly, looking into the distance. "I have always believed that when someone is toyed with by history, such as my dear Jeanne, they are given a second chance at a peaceful life."

"Okay…?" Li blinked.

"I saw Jeanne," France summed up his point. "Nearly seven hundred years after her death at the stake, I saw her. She was at Mont-Saint Michel, taking pictures like any tourist."

"Huh?" Li's mind started to process the information. "So…you're saying she really was reborn? What happened?"

"I offered to be her tour guide, and took her to some of the best sightseeing areas," France sighed wistfully. "She was delighted by the scenery, and surprised to hear that Mont-Saint Michel was once a battleground. Her new name is Lisa…and she didn't seem to realize that the statue of Jeanne was her spitting image."

"Are you sure you weren't just fooling yourself?" Li pointed out. "She could have been a relative of Jeanne's, or just someone who looked like her by coincidence."

"No, it was her," France closed his eyes. "When you love someone, and give your heart to them, and care for them more than you care for yourself, you will always know them on sight. I knew she was Jeanne the moment I saw her, and all of her reactions only confirmed it. She had the same heart as Jeanne, the same gentle disposition."

"I thought Jeanne was a fighter?" Li frowned. "How can you be gentle and fight in battles?"

"Fighting in a battle does not mean you are not a gentle person," France opened his eyes and tsked. "Jeanne fought with the blessing of God, for the freedom of the country she loved—me. When you fight with love in your heart, you may still be a gentle person off the battlefield."

"That doesn't make sense," Li muttered, looking away. "Fighting is ugly and brutal and horrible. How can a gentle person go through that and stay soft?"

"Mon amie, you misunderstand the concept of gentleness," France shook his head. "A gentle person is not soft, or weak, or unable to defend others. You may swing a sword or raise a gun on the battlefield, but that does not determine if you are gentle or not gentle."

"Then what does?" Li glanced at France. His hair was waving slightly in the wind, his breath fogging before him as he gazed out at the city—his capital, his heart, whatever it was to him. The moment almost seemed surreal to Li, every flake of falling snow sharply defined, every detail of her surroundings vivid and aglow with some inner light.

"You are a gentle person if, even after seeing and doing many horrible and violent things, you can still touch the petals of a flower with delicate fingers and warm eyes," France whispered, eyes half-shutting. One of his hands lifted up and reached forward, as if he was so lost in memory he couldn't recall where he was.

Li hesitated. Who was he thinking of? Jeanne? Did he remember that Li was there? France lowered his hand once more, eyes closing for a moment. He took in a deep breath, then smiled and looked over at Li.

"And that," he grinned at her, "is what makes someone gentle."

* * *

A small canoe was adrift in the frigid waters of the North Pole. It bumped into several ice floes, rocking dangerously as it did but remaining afloat. The contents, a few leather bundles and a broken spear, slid to one side of the canoe as it tilted. The uneven distribution of weight threatened to tip the canoe over completely, until a polar sea lion swam by and rocked the boat in the opposite direction, shifting the bundles again and righting the canoe.

Atka, a young Northern Water Tribe man who had been assigned to patrol the walls of the city that evening, noticed the canoe as it meandered towards the huge walls, pulled along by the current. He was nearing the end of his shift, he was tired, he was worried about his pregnant sister, and he wanted nothing to do with lost canoes.

But several hunters had gone missing recently, and were presumed dead: it might be their canoe, finally bringing some news back of their fate. If it was the missing hunters' canoe, Atka was obligated to investigate. Investigating would lead to a long, boring night talking with the older hunters and the Chief, trying to decide what to do about the canoe. Spending the night talking to other hunters would keep Atka awake until dawn, when he had to join a hunting party and go out for the day.

Everything boiled down to the question of what was more important: doing his duty, or getting some sleep. Atka sighed. Duty, of course, had to come first.

He made his way to the stairs, and emerged on the shore. The canoe was drifting towards a spot about thirty yards to his right. Atka couldn't see any bodies inside, but there could still be some indication of the hunters' fate.

Atka had to take a moment to pause and yawn. He'd been on duty for hours, though it probably felt longer than it actually was. His eyelids were drooping, and his body felt heavy and sluggish. The cold air on his face was keeping him awake, but the warmth of his coat was tempting him to forget about the cold, draw his hood and face mask tight, and drift off into blissful, warm sleep…

Mm, sleep…

No! Atka shook his head, trying to clear his mind. He had to determine what the canoe was doing here before he let himself drift off. If it was nothing, maybe he could deal with it, then head home and sleep. It was definitely strange, a canoe drifting in like this, but maybe someone else's canoe had gotten lost recently and they hadn't bothered to report it to the other hunters.

The canoe bumped into the icy beach at the foot of the wall, recoiled back a yard, and was pushed forward again by the tides. Atka made his way over to the canoe, pulling out a whalebone machete just in case there was anything dangerous. A gust of wind managed to go partially down his anorak, hitting his side like an icy slap. Biting back a yelp, Atka paused to pull his hood up over his ears.

From a few yards away, Atka realized the canoe looked to be in good condition—it couldn't have been out on the sea for more than a day before now. There were no scrapes in the sides from hitting ice floes, no dents or repairs on the blue-and-purple hull. Nobody in the tribe had needed to make a new canoe for a few years now: all the ones they had were worn from use. Even the Chief went fishing in a canoe that bore scars from a seal hunt three years ago. So whose canoe was this?

Unsure of what this could mean, Atka glanced back up at the wall. The other man assigned to patrol the same section of the wall as him was walking away, his back to the small icy beach Atka was standing on. With little chance of getting his attention, Atka looked back at the canoe. Maybe its contents would give him a clue as to its origin.

He covered the remaining distance between him and the canoe, eyes darting around to make sure nothing spooky would happen. Ghost stories were running through Atka's head, ones about people finding strange things in the snow and disappearing forever. This counted as a strange thing, didn't it? Maybe he should go find someone else to come with him…just in case.

But then wouldn't he seem like a coward when it turned out that the canoe was just a normal canoe? Yeah…it was probably supposed to be a gift for someone, but had gotten loose and drifted off…yeah, that made sense. Maybe the Chief wanted to give it to his brother-in-law, as congratulation for the Chief's sister getting pregnant.

Atka leaned forward and poked at the canoe with his machete. It rocked a bit, and the leather bags inside slid about. Hm. They looked like they might have seal jerky inside…

_SHNK_

Wait…what? Atka blinked in confusion, looking down. Why did his chest hurt so bad? That…was that a lump in his anorak, just centimeters from his heart? How had it gotten…what was going on? What? He…he couldn't have been…there was no chance that he'd been…

W-wow…he didn't feel so good…and it…hurt…

Atka's eyes went dull. His last thought was, _Intruders…!_

Then Lanko pulled his whalebone sword out of the Water Tribe man's back, holding him up with his other hand. "Hey, Zhou, will this guy do?" Lanko called, looking down into the water. The dark surface rippled once, twice, and then burst apart as three human figures appeared in a bubble of ice. One of the figures clenched its hand, and the ice shattered.

"Hm…" Zhou stepped off the ice floe that remained from the bubble, and peered at the body of the Water Tribe man. "Yes, I think he'll do. It might stretch my limits a bit, but so long as we don't take too long I can manage. Where did you stab him, exactly?"

"The back," Lanko turned the corpse around to show the bloody hole. "Um, I hope you're planning to do something about that, because it's kinda obvious from behind."

"Don't worry, I will," Zhou flashed his white teeth at Lanko, making the older man shudder. Zhou's eyes were just like the corpse's—dull and seemingly unseeing. Maybe they didn't see, and he used his spirit-powers to tell where people were. In any case, Zhou was creepy and he freaked Lanko out more than Duyao. That said something, because Duyao's inability to show emotion could get really creepy at times.

Speaking of Duyao, her and Meiko had climbed onto the shore as well. Meiko Waterbended the ice floe apart, and turned to Duyao, who was actually showing a reaction to something and shivering in the cold. "I told you to wear the parka," Meiko sighed as she reached up to pull Duyao's hood up around the girl's ears. "You're going to freeze like this, dear."

"W-wearing the par-ka would s-slow me dow-n," Duyao forced out through chattering teeth. "I can't af-ford to be weighed d-down."

"Being fast and freezing is _not_ better than being slow and warm," Meiko sighed. "Lanko, Zhou, can you hurry up? I'd like to sneak in soon. Can't believe this is working twice, seriously, our tribe's gone to seed in the ten years we've been gone…"

"Yeah yeah, we're hurrying," Lanko rolled his eyes and turned his attention to Zhou. "So…do your thing. Hop on in or whatever, we don't have all day."

"I'd hardly call it 'hopping in'…" Zhou murmured, reached his hand out to touch the open wound in the back of the man's anorak. His fingers explored the area, pushing aside the fabric to reveal torn flesh. He leaned forward, pressing his fingers into the wound, deeper and deeper, until his entire hand was inside the body. There was a wet ripping sound as Zhou's hand widened the wound, and Lanko made a face at the noise.

"Groooooss…" Lanko stuck his tongue out in disgust, dropping his sword to put a hand over one ear. Zhou's lips turned up, and Lanko realized he was smiling. The ripping stopped as Zhou's arm started to go into the wound, much deeper than it should be able to without coming out the other side. Shadows started to play over Zhou's body, and his clothing—suited for summer in the Fire Nation, not early winter in the Water Tribes—began to meld into his body. Meiko gasped as Zhou turned completely into a thing of shadow, and flowed into the wound on the dead body's back.

The body twitched, and Lanko dropped it as quickly as he could. "Oh sharding icicles, that is wrong," Lanko pointed at the body as it fell onto the snow and started to have a seizure. Out of pure caution, and totally not fear, Lanko stepped back and pulled out a new knife. Duyao flinched back from the corpse, and Meiko wrapped her arms around the girl protectively.

"Zh-Zhou, are you all right…?" Meiko called carefully, pushing Duyao partly behind her. The corpse gave one final, pronounced shudder, and stilled.

The wound on the back closed up, and the fabric over it did the same. Worried about being seen, Lanko glanced up to the wall. A couple of guards were walking along sections farther down, not looking at the small beach near the very edge of the wall. Meiko had entered previously by Bending an ice bubble into an area underneath the city, then going up through the ice, easily avoiding the guards. That tactic wouldn't work with three, uh, four people: Meiko couldn't Bend a bubble large enough for everyone all the way into the city, and it was harder to hide three, um, four people than it was to hid one. Sneaking up to the wall with an ice floe, then breaking in from there, had been their alternative plan. Man, it was hard to think of Zhou as a person. It was nice to know that, so far at least, the creepy kid's plan was working.

Though, there was one other part to it as well.

Lanko watched with a morbid curiosity as the corpse on the ground raised one arm and pushed itself to its hands and knees. The head turned to one side, cracking the neck, and repeated the action on the other side. It arched its back and stretched, then leaned forward and shifted its feet underneath it.

"Hm," Zhou's voice spoke. "A bit roomy, but it'll do." Lanko noticed that the corpse's mouth didn't move when Zhou spoke, and wondered if he should mention it. Nah…

"Fascinating!" Meiko half-lunged forward, grabbing the corpse's arm. "You've healed the damage! Is the body alive once more, or are you merely controlling dead flesh? Would you compare this to my Bloodbending, or is it more like wearing a garment made of…Lanko, stop that." Meiko's younger brother lowered his finger from his ear, where he had been drawing circles in the air. In retaliation, he stuck his tongue out at his sister briefly. The Water Tribe warrior was a strong believer in "young once, immature forever."

"I'm not sure how to describe it," Zhou shrugged the body's shoulders. The motion was jerky, unnatural. "It's the first time I've ever tried it, though I knew I could before. Hm…how do I look?" He spread the body's arms wide, and the head sagged forward.

"You look like seal guts," Lanko informed him bluntly. "How are you gonna trick the guards into letting you pass if you're acting like a puppet?"

"A puppet? Really?" Zhou sounded surprised, but the corpse's face didn't change at all. "Let me…is that better?" The mouth moved this time, and the lax facial muscles seized up for a second before settling. Something changed about it…something impossible to put words to, but whatever it was, it was like the corpse was alive again.

"Okay, that looks a bit more realistic," Lanko nodded. "What'd you do?"

"I started the heart and lungs," Zhou explained. He brought a hand up and turned the eyeballs to look at it. "Does it help? It's hard to move right in here, though."

"Yeah, yeah, try getting up to the top," Lanko pointed to an opening in the wall. "That guy wasn't a Waterbender, so he had to get down here by the stairs. Head up, make an opening for us, and we'll sneak into the city."

"Then meet later, once I've finished guard duty," Zhou bobbed the body's head up and down. It looked like someone was pulling on a string to make it move—not the most pleasant of sights, to be sure. "How long will it take you to reach the Spirit Oasis from here?"

"I was in the city for two days before I found Team Avatar," Meiko shrugged. "But since we already know where the Oasis is, we'll meet you there within a day."

"Th-the Northern Wat-er Tribe m-must be im-mense," Duyao commented as tonelessly as she could. Her teeth clacked together, dangerously close to biting off her tongue.

"It is, but that's not what'll take so long," Meiko told her. "We'll need to stay hidden. Even with you in blue, and me and Lanko hiding our faces, it's too dangerous to take a direct route. I know the back alleys and canals pretty well from when Lanko and I used to live here, so we're taking those. Oh," Meiko chuckled, "and we're getting you an anorak. You can't go around in my spare clothing forever, and if you don't put something warmer on you'll bite your tongue off with those chattering teeth."

"Yeah, and then you'd drown in your own blood and I would just be devastated," Lanko grinned.

"I'll go onto the wall, then," Zhou informed his allies. "Follow me in five minutes. I can distract the rest of the guards, and let you pass by unnoticed." The corpse and its passenger disappeared into the stairway to the top of the Northern Water Tribe's great wall, moving jerkily and unnaturally.

"He is never gonna fool them," Lanko commented.

"Of course not," Meiko agreed. "But he will be able to distract them long enough for us to sneak into the city proper."

"Yeah," Lanko nodded. He glanced over at his sister. "It's been ten years since we were home…"

"It's been three days for me. Get over it."

"Whatever."

"C-can we pl-ease stop arguing an-nd go some-where warm-mer?"

* * *

In the Spirit World, in a realm consisting of mostly sand and animals bones, there was an oasis. The waters were a lovely blue, and framed by dark green grass and palm trees. A few coconuts had fallen to the ground around the oasis, perfectly placed to look casual and innocent.

Kneeling on the side of the oasis was a spirit, in the form of a young woman. "Not a bad show…" she murmured to herself.

* * *

**Me: And there you go! Please review to tell me what you liked, disliked, any grammar or spelling errors me and my spellcheck have missed, and so such. Thank you for taking the time to read my story!**


	41. Summer

**Me: Lookitdat! A new chapter! After two weeks, no less!**

**Li: Karen is very sorry about that, by the way, but she feels that she's done very well on her tests and has had enough time to study for upcoming ones thanks to not having so much pressure on her to write. She will update once a week unless something comes up, and is hoping to get some chapters written for other stuff as well.**

**Me: It's true! I do! Like Four Nations...man, I haven't updated that one in a while...and I know what I wanna do and everything, I just haven't gotten around to writing it yet...**

**Li: Well, maybe if you'd spend a little less time on Sims Medieval and a little more time on writing things...**

**Me: Butbutbut! I just got Sims Medieval! And it's _really fun_! You can even do a quest for killing your _Monarch_! How cool is that?**

**Li: Umm...you do realize that, in your fanon, I'm going to be the Fire Lord...? And that the Fire Lord is a monarch? And that I'm a little disturbed at you talking so cheerfully about killing monarchs...?**

**Me: Nope. Did not realize that last one.**

**Li: *sigh* Karen does not own Avatar or Hetalia, just me and her other OCs. Please excuse me while I barricade myself in a closet...**

* * *

Li's eyes darted over the construction area rapidly, trying to take in everything she could. Everything was curved, or conical, or in construction still. The structure was so massive, Li doubted her own world had anything like it. Not even the Earth King's Palace reached so high into the sky! And even with machines capable of doing more work than humans, Spain had been working on building it for over a hundred years! Or thereabouts…Li had been so captivated by the structure itself—a cathedral, she thought it was called?—that she wasn't exactly sure what Spain had said to her. Romano's screaming about Spain touching him hadn't helped matters, either…

Oh, right. Spain and Romano. She might want to assure them that her brain still worked. Li turned around to where she remembered seeing them last, a huge smile on her face as she thought about the grand structure taking form before her very eyes…

…and realized that Spain and Romano were gone.

Huh?

Li blinked slowly, brain trying to process the fact that Spain and Romano were nowhere to be seen. She started to turn her head slowly, scanning the crowd around her for any sign of them. Her ears strained to catch any shouting, in hopes that Spain and Romano had just stumbled a little ways off as Romano attacked his old guardian.

Nothing. All Li saw was foreigners, with brown and black and red and yellow hair, and strange clothing that seemed to be in any color the wearer liked. Some were talking into "cell phones," or fiddling with the devices in their hand, and others were chatting with their companions in languages Li didn't recognize. A couple people noticed Li searching the crowd, but nobody stared at her for longer than a few seconds.

It sank in that Spain and Romano were missing, and Li's heart skipped a beat before starting to pound furiously. Were they okay? Was _Li_ okay, in a strange city with nobody she could talk to present? What if something happened—a random stranger tried to attack her, there was an accident, Li got hurt? Could she handle things properly? She could definitely defend herself against an attack, but what if her attacker told the authorities that Li had attacked him? Not being able to speak the language—and thus, to defend herself against an accusation—Li would be unable to keep from getting into trouble with the local Home Guard, or whatever they were called here.

And getting into trouble might mean the Nations would start to think Li was a burden, and stop helping her. Li had to avoid that at all costs: she had to keep the Nations liking her and helping her, because what did she have without that? Absolutely nothing. No knowledge of this world beyond what the Nations told her, no resources to speak of—unless she was able to keep some of the clothing Hungary had bought her—and no allies.

Staying out of trouble: big priority. Li took several deep breaths, hoping to calm herself down, and looked for someplace she could sit. Getting off of her feet would keep her out of the way of the crowd, and if she could find a secluded enough spot it might afford her a little privacy to think.

All right. Find someplace to think, come up with a better plan, act on it. Knowing what she would do made Li feel a bit better already. Now, where was a good spot to sit…?

"Hey, chica? You lost or something?" Someone put a hand on Li's shoulder. Li started, whirling around and grabbing the hand in case whoever it was meant her some harm. "Wo-ah, chill! Simple question!" The blonde woman in dark glasses who had touched Li held her other hand up, fingers spread to show she had no weapon. "You just look sorta lost, so I figured I'd see if you needed anything. You okay?"

"M-me?" Li blinked, wondering how this woman spoke her language. Realizing she was poised to attack, Li quickly dropped the woman's hand and took a half-step back. "I, uh, I'm lost. My friends disappeared on me, and I don't know my way around the city."

"Friends?" the blonde woman laughed. "Ooh, tell me about it. What are their names? We can wander the streets, shouting them, until we find who we're looking for…or at least, some hot guys!" The last bit was said in a half-joking tone, and the blonde winked at Li.

"I…um, no, let's not do that," Li shook her head. What _were_ Spain and Romano's human names? They had some, Li knew that much, but she wasn't sure what they were. Saying she was looking for a "Spain," while actually in the country of Spain, would only get Li branded as crazy. But…how could Li look for them? Give the woman a description and hope that was enough? Was she even thinking of accepting help from a total stranger? Surely she wasn't that desperate!

No, no, she was that desperate. Li needed to find Spain and Romano, and she'd take any help she could get. And who knew, she might even make a new ally in the process…

"What's your name?" Li asked the woman. Best to get a little information on her first, just in case.

"Summer," the blonde flashed perfect white teeth at Li. "You can call me Summer. Full name's Summer Susana Smith, alliteration intentional. And you?"

"I'm Li Wu, but everyone calls me Li," Li started to place her right fist at the bottom of her left hand in greeting, stopped herself, and instead offered her right hand to Summer like a European would. "It's nice to meet you, Summer."

"Same here, Li," Summer grinned and seized Li's hand in both of hers, pumping it up and down quickly before letting it go. Li glanced over Summer quickly, trying to affirm that Summer wasn't hiding anything. The blonde's pants—jeans, several shades lighter than Li's own—had been cut so they only reached her upper thighs, exposing long, muscled legs that had been tanned perfectly. A purse hung from Summer's shoulder, made of some shiny gold material that complemented her tan and her deep yellow shirt—Li had vague recollections of the exact style being called a "tank top" at some point, though she wasn't sure where. Dark-lensed glasses covered Summer's eyes, almost hiding her eyebrows as well. Gold bracelets jangled on one of her wrists, and a thin gold chain with a sun pendant hung around her neck. Summer's hair hung to the small of her back, as long as Li's hair had been before it was cut.

She looked trustable. Her smile seemed genuine, and her posture was casual. If Summer had an ulterior motive, like robbery, it would fail on the basis that Li had only the clothing she was wearing. A physical attack would end in Li's favor, unless Summer had five or more friends waiting nearby to help. Li wouldn't trust any drinks or food Summer offered until the two had spent a bit more time together, and Li had gotten a better measure of Summer's intentions. And all in all, Li really needed the help.

"So…my friends," Li tried to smile back at Summer, but worried it might come across as a grimace and stopped. "There are two of them, both boys. They have brown hair and green eyes and are tanned, actually they sort of look like they're related, only one has this grumpy look to him while the other is always smiling. Um, they like tomatoes…"

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Bastardo!" Romano screeched, raising the basket above his head. He'd gotten the basket from a stall selling tomatoes somewhere along the line, and had been using it to whack Spain. Spain had been his usual over-affectionate self with Romano, and after several hours of putting up with his old boss putting an arm around his shoulders or outright hugging him, Romano had been stretched to breaking point. He'd snapped, and chased Spain through the streets of Barcelona wielding whatever he could get his hands on. "Non sono la tua carica più, quindi mi tocca smettere di cazzo!"

"No puedo dejar de querer mostrar mi pequeño Romano un poco de cariño!" Spain protested, raising his arms to shield himself. "Por favor, Romano! No voy a hacerlo de nuevo, lo prometo!"

"Questo è quello che hai detto ULTIMI cento volte, BASTARDO!" Romano shouted, bringing the basket down. Spain squeezed his eyes shut and braced for impact…

After about a minute of waiting, Spain opened his eyes again. A policeman had grabbed Romano's arm, and was wrestling the basket away.

"Usted está bajo arresto por asalto!" The policeman shouted, pulling out a pair of handcuffs.

"H-he started it! He did!" Romano wailed. "Li, tell him—Li?" It occurred to the two Nations that the last time they had seen Li, she had been staring in awe at one of Spain's major landmarks. "Spain, you jerk! You made us lose Li!"

This might take a while…

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Man, you'd think it'd be easier to find a couple of cute guys in Barcelona," Summer sighed. She glanced around at the crowd, then looked back at Li. "It'd go a lot better if you'd tell me their names. We could contact the police or something, not just ask every other person if they've seen two brown-haired, green-eyed guys."

"Oh! Romano has a curl on the right side of his head!" Li gave Summer an apologetic look. "I, uh, forgot to mention it before, but it's kinda distinctive. Just the one curl, and he got really red when I asked him why it was sticking out of his head so prominently."

"Romano? I'll assume that's one of your friends," Summer pushed Li's arm playfully. "Is he Spanish, then?"

"No, but my other friend is," Li paused to think about what would be safe to tell Summer. "Uh, Romano is…Italian? I'm pretty sure that was it."

"You think? How well do you know this guy?" Summer frowned.

"I met him a little over a month ago," Li explained. "He's a bit odd, but he's very nice to me. I've been getting the feeling it's a different story with men, though. Whenever our other friend tries to be affectionate with Romano, Romano starts screaming at him and whacking him over the head with whatever's convenient."

"Ah, I see how it is," Summer laughed. "So," her tone grew suggestive, "after only a month of knowing an Italian man, you decided to take a vacation in Spain with him and his friend…?"

"What are you—no, n-not like that!" Li blushed. "It's true that I don't know them as well as I'd like, but we're not…Romano's a nice guy and all, but I'm not interested in him like that. I have a…well, I had a fiancé, I might not now…it's complicated."

"A fiancé? You're a little young, aren't you?" Summer raised an eyebrow over the rim of her sunglasses. "You know what, it's past lunch and I haven't eaten. Let's go get some food and I can question you all about yourself over tapas."

"Qu-question?" Li's eyes widened in worry. "Food? I don't have any money on me, Romano said Sp—our friend would pay." And she wasn't sure if she should eat anything Summer offered, Li added silently.

"I'll cover your meal," Summer said firmly. "It's the least I can do. 'Sp—our friend' can pay me back when we find him. Now come on." She grabbed Li's wrist, and firmly pulled the girl over to an outside café nearby.

Li wound up getting a sandwich and a glass of water, Summer a bowl of soup and some wine. They were seated at a round table in the sunlight by a kind young man who spoke in "Spanish" only, and flirted with Summer before leaving and bringing them their orders. A careful check by Li, in the guise of making sure nothing strange was on her food, assured Li that no obvious drugs had been added to the meat-and-bread dish. Summer practically inhaled her soup, and sipped at her wine while Li ate her sandwich. When they were both done, Summer set her wine glass down meaningfully.

"All right," the blonde leaned forward across the table towards Li. "I've got a hundred questions for you, so let's get cracking. Where are you from?"

"Where am I…from?" Li's mind momentarily blanked, then clawed its way back into functioning. "Um, I'm working for Aust—a man living in Austria. Vienna, I think the city's name was?"

"That's where you live now, but where were you born?" Summer pressed. "Going by the accent, I'd say you're American—you don't speak like a Brit, and you're not using funny words like an Australian. So where are you from in the States? New York, California, Florida?"

"I'm from…" Where could she say she was from? Um, she was supposed to get into a plane and fly to America's in the evening…where was she landing, again? "New York City. In…America. Yeah."

"All right," Summer took a drink of her wine again. "You mentioned a fiancé? As I said before, aren't you a little young?"

"Um…maybe, but things are complicated," Li looked down at the empty plate before her, wondering how to word things so Summer would understand. "My fiancé, she…well, Ku was born as a man, but she was supposed to be a woman…do you know what I'm talking about? People where I'm from don't understand her, and they aren't kind to her at all because of her…condition. They think she's ill, or insane, because she was supposed to be a woman but wasn't, and nobody will believe that the spirits have given Ku the wrong body as a test of her strength. All anyone back home ever does is make her life difficult, and it's horrible for her."

"She's a transsexual," Summer nodded encouragingly. "I can see how she'd have troubles. But is she lesbian too, or is there some other reason for you two getting engaged?"

"It's…well, our families have money," Li confessed, and she started to babble. "Nobody understands that Ku's supposed to be a woman, and they all think she should act like some big, strong man when she's not. She's an only child, which makes it all the harder for her parents, because they want her to be a strong heir and act like everyone wants her to, but she can't, because it's not who she is, and…I thought up the marriage plan because it'll give Ku's family a strong connection to mine, which they really want, and then Ku can go live in the country while I stay with…but things have happened, and…and…" Tears started to well up in Li's eyes as she thought about the consequences of the Tóngyī Revolution. "There was…this thing…and now I don't even know if Ku's still alive."

"Okay, hold up," Summer tapped a finger against the tabletop. "So, you and your friend got engaged so other people would leave her alone about being transsexual? Why couldn't she just get a surgery?"

"Get a what?" Li's eyebrows drew together. "How would being cut open help her situation any?"

"A sex change surgery," Summer clarified. "If your friend comes from money, she should be able to afford one. Then she'll be a woman physically too."

"A…no, we don't have those," Li shook her head. "And even if we did, that would be the ultimate shame for Ku and her family. Her parents wouldn't be able to arrange any marriages for her then, with a man _or_ a woman, and she'd probably be disowned. You have to understand, where I come from we value honor more than anything, and Ku wanting to be a woman is when she was born a man would be a slap in the face of the spirits—a huge dishonor for her family."

"I think I get that," Summer bobbed her head. "And why don't you know if she's still alive?"

"There was…an incident," Li looked away, towards the street. "I…I really don't want to talk about it." Li's throat started to close on itself, and her voice grew strained. "A lot of people I knew are probably dead. Now I don't know if Ku's still alive or not, and even if she is, I don't know if we'll be able to go through with the engagement at all."

"Why not?" Summer reached forward and brushed her fingers against Li's hand. "Is there something else?"

"My bro—my family, my parents and my little brother, were killed in the…incident," Li's throat constricted on itself, and she felt a tear streak from her eye. Her nose began to stuff up, threatening to run. "I have an older brother too, but he's illegitimate, by my father's m-mistress. He's a pi—a criminal, so nobody would accept him as my father's heir. That means I have to…"

"Have to what?" Summer asked softly, looking at Li. Her sunglasses hid her eyes, but Li could hear the compassion in her voice.

"I…things are different now, and I have to be my father's heir, and all that means too," Li buried her head in her arms and tried willing herself to stop crying. It didn't work, but at least nobody could see her tears, or the mess her face became when she cried. Summer got out of her chair and knelt next to Li, stroking her hair and making comforting noises until Li was able to raise her head and stop crying.

"I'm sorry," Summer whispered as she pulled a handkerchief out of her purse and began to dab at Li's face. "I shouldn't have asked about that. It's your turn now: ask me whatever you want."

"Okay…" Li blinked and tried to smile. "Where are you from?"

"All over," Summer laughed, "but mostly warm places. My name's Summer for a reason: I hate the cold. Total opposite from my brother, who loves it."

"You have a brother? What's he like?" Li picked up her water and took a drink to soothe her throat.

"My brother…if I'm summer, he's winter," Summer tilted her head to one side, as if she were rolling her eyes. "If I like something, chances are good he'll like its opposite. He's always up north, wherever there's snow on the ground, running around terrorizing people…okay, I'm exaggerating on the terrorizing bit. But he's got a cold personality. And did I mention he's military?"

"No, you didn't. Do you have any other siblings?" Li gently pushed Summer's hand away, and the blonde woman resumed her seat across the small table.

"Yeah, two sisters," Summer grinned. "We get along better than me and my brother, and he gets along with them better than with me. They've always been the mediators in the family, staying between my brother and me so we won't start a war or something. I'm also the prankster of the family, and my sisters have better senses of humor than our brother. I swear, it's like that guy is made of ice…humorless ice! And there's some kid up in Russia my brother really likes to pick on, too, poor thing."

"Oh, I've been to Russia," Li made a face. "It's cold. I mean, it was early spring when I was there, but it felt like the dead of winter. At least it was warmer than the North Pole." She was feeling a lot better now that the conversation was distracting her—and hopefully Summer wouldn't ask Li about her home again. Li had no idea what she would say, and more likely than not she'd panic and be unable to get an intelligent word out, and Summer would realize just how much Li was hiding and…okay, not gonna think about that…

"Spring in Russia is like that, or so I hear," Summer sighed. "Me, I prefer the Mediterranean, if we're talking Europe. Africa's really nice too, especially the Sahara. Heh, d'you know, one time my brother got beat up by this weirdo guy with cat ears? So, I turned the heat up in his place until it felt like summer. He was furious with me! Always has to have it freezing cold, doesn't care if you're turning into a block of ice, nope. Autumn thought it was hilarious, though."

"Autumn? Is she one of your sisters?" Li took another drink of her water, appreciating the cool liquid against her throat. Summer's glass was starting to get low—it was the last of the bottle she'd ordered, too.

"Yeah," Summer started to trace out circles on the table with a finger. "She's a real sweetie. A bit motherly, but at least she's not some stiff like our brother. We can have fun together, and it's never boring to hit the clubs with Autumn at your side."

"Sounds like she's nice," Li offered.

"So long as you don't stick around her long enough for her chilly side to come out," Summer agreed. "Our other sister is a bit different. She's sorta cold at first to people she doesn't know, but give it time and she'll warm right up until she's acting a lot like me."

"Never a dull moment with siblings around, huh?" Li tried to joke. She wanted to end the conversation and go back to looking for Spain and Romano, but wasn't sure how to do that without seeming impolite. If she was too blunt she might offend Summer, and getting on the wrong side of the only person willing to help her didn't seem like the best of ideas.

"You know it, girl!" Summer raised her glass of wine before taking another drink, finishing off the rest. "I hate being bored. Just ask my siblings, they'll tell you! They might not always approve of the lengths I go to for entertainment, but I've always thought it's worth a little more pain and suffering in the world to keep the stir-craziness away."

"Huh?" The phrase "a little more pain and suffering in the world" started to run through Li's head, and the Fire Nation girl leaned back slowly. "Um…what do you do?"

"Me? Whatever I wanna, girl!" Summer giggled. Li wondered if the wine was getting her drunk. Summer had already gone through a whole bottle. "I'm the sort of person who'd mess with you to get some drama! I'd pretend I slept with your boyfriend to get tears, I'd plant false evidence and sit back to watch the show! Nothing I like more than dropping a pebble and watching the ripples! But I'm not always so bad…I can be a sweetie too, once I get to know someone. Until then, though, I don't care what happens to 'ya unless it's entertaining." She sobered, and looked at Li seriously. "I mean it, chica. So I'm hoping to see some fun action on your end, you hear me?"

"What?" Li blinked. When had the conversation taken this turn? What was Summer talking about? "Uh, how about we—well, you—pay, and we can start looking for my friends again?"

"Oh, they're about to show up," Summer waved a hand dismissively. "And that's why I want you to listen up good. I'll be watching you and the Nations like a hawk, you hear? Make sure some good drama happens! Gimme a show!"

"N-Nations? I…I don't know what you're…" Li felt like someone had poured icewater over her. How did Summer know about the Nations? Was she one of them? As far as Li knew, there was no nation of…summer…

Summer reached up, and pulled off her dark-lensed glasses. She blinked as the bright sunlight hit her face, then fixed her yellow eyes—eyes Li wouldn't be surprised to see on a Firebender, but that she hadn't seen yet in this world—on the girl across the table from her.

"Come on, chica," Summer grinned. "A good show. Gimme."

"Li!"

At the sound of her name, Li jumped to her feet and whirled around. Romano and Spain were running towards her, weaving through tables and upsetting plates or glasses as they passed. Spain paused to apologize for any damage he or Romano inflicted, but Romano kept going until he reached Li.

"Li! Are you okay?" Romano demanded, grabbing Li's chin and turning her head so he could assure himself she was all right. "Spain ran off and I followed the jerk but when we got back to where we left you you'd disappeared! What happened? Were you kidnapped? If it was the Mafia, I swear to God they're gonna pay!"

"No, I'm fine," Li insisted, batting Romano's hand away from her face. "This girl, Summer, she—" Li turned to look at her, to tell Romano about how Summer seemed to know everything about Li, only to realize…there was nobody else there. Summer's chair was completely empty. Li's mouth fell open.

"Some girl, Summer, what?" Romano scowled. "Come on, tell me!"

"She…she was sitting right there…" Li pointed to the empty chair. She felt like she had been wrapped in cotton and doused with ice water. Everything was distant, noises were far off. Was this shock? It probably was…

Her body felt stiff, wooden, as Li walked around the small café table and felt the seat of Summer's chair. It was still warm, dispelling the possibility of Summer being an illusion of Li's. Romano was confused, and being vocal about it, but he saw how disturbed Li was and fell silent. Li's mind seemed to have frozen, and one question kept going through her head…

_Who was Summer? Or…what was she?_

* * *

**Me: Dun dun duuuuuuuun!**

**Li: You're so mature.**

**Me: I know, right?**

**Li: Please review, tell us what you like, dislike, think could use improvements, etc., as Karen cannot improve without the input of her dear readers. I'm still in that closet, by the way.**

**Me: I'm piling furniture up in front of it. It's late at night, and I'm a liiiiiitle caffeinated! Just a little, I swear!**

**Li: She thinks everything's funny at one am...**

**Me: Because it IS!**


	42. Movies

**Me: It is much later in the day than I planned it to be. I'm sorry, I'd hoped to get this chapter posted first-thing.**

**Li: This chapter is a bit shorter than Karen would have liked, because she's having troubles sitting down to write in between preparations for the holidays. She's also trying to work on other projects in her free time, some of which are pretty much unnecessary-**

**Me: *sulks* **

**Li: -so we've very sorry for the short chapter. Karen does not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, or Hetalia: Axis Powers. Enjoy the chapter, please!**

* * *

Buildings and cars passed by slowly as the traffic inched along. The smell of gasoline was everywhere, so strong Li thought she might be sick from it. America had turned up the heat in his car, thank goodness, because the weather outside was much colder than Barcelona's. New York City had barely any snow on the ground in mid-April, but compared to the equatorial Fire Nation…there really was no comparison. In terms of climate, the Fire Nation won every time.

Li's mind wasn't on the weather, though, or the ridiculous amount of time it was taking to reach America's home. She was stuck on her experience in Spain's lands, wondering just what had really happened. Neither Spain nor Romano had seen the woman calling herself Summer, and there had been no time to question others at the restaurant: right after Spain and Romano found her, Li'd had to hurry to catch a plane, stopping first in Madrid, then a city called Lisbon, and finally all the way across a huge ocean to New York City. Romano had accompanied her on the plane, but had caught a flight to Rome an hour after meeting with America.

Ru always said that it was easier to analyze a situation if you listed out what you knew. So, what did Li know about _this_ situation? One, she was in a completely different world from her own, and while here she was more-or-less at the mercy of the Nations. Two, a mysterious woman calling herself Summer had appeared in Barcelona, told Li to give her "a good show," and vanished. Three, Li's Firebending was stronger than it had ever been, for no real reason that Li could discern. Four, Li had twice been sent on "visits" to her own world, where she was invisible and immaterial, and could not communicate with anyone. Five, during those "visits" a voice had said…

The voice! Li sat up in her car seat, startled by a new realization. During her dream-visits, which had done little except let Li know everyone was okay, some voice had spoken to her. Why hadn't Li thought about the voice before now? But she was sure, as she looked back at her memories, that the voice was the same as Summer's!

So, Summer's voice had spoken to Li in her dream-visits. Perhaps Summer was the one behind the dream-visits? And if that was so, there wasn't much of a leap to the possibility that Summer was the spirit who sent Li to this world in the first place! Maybe her memory was coloring the voice to match, but Li was positive.

Summer had sent Li here: it fit what Li knew. But why? The woman said, "Give me a good show": could that have been the only reason? Because she was bored, wanting entertainment, and had found Li all dying and vulnerable? What right did she have to do that? Spirit or no, Li's life wasn't a toy to play with!

Something sour was bubbling in Li's stomach, and her brows creased. If Summer had done this to Li, that meant she might be an enemy. She might be working with the Tóngyī Shìjiè! Gege's odd powers would surely warrant him the attention of the spirits, and if he had some on his side…

Back to Summer. Li had to focus on Summer, because that was the problem most likely to be within Li's reach at the moment. If Summer was a spirit…let's just say Li had a fair idea what Summer was the spirit _of_. Spirits might be powerful, but they all seemed to lack a certain inventiveness in names. Unless Summer just wanted it to be painfully obvious who she was, which would fit with her "give me a good show" statement.

If Summer was the literal Spirit of Summer, that could be problematic. Summer was the season of heat and the sun, and thus was the time of year when Firebending was strongest. Having the Spirit of Summer for an enemy didn't seem like a good idea to Li, because what if Summer could diminish the strength of Li's Firebending? What if she could take it away entirely?

Consequently, though, could it be because of Summer's involvement that Li's Bending was suddenly so much stronger? With a little consideration, that seemed the most likely reason. So if Summer had boosted Li's Firebending, why would she do that? Had it been intentional, or not? The latter option seemed more likely, because why would you give someone who might try to attack you an extra edge?

Oh sweet Pele, Li really didn't need this headache…

"Um, if you're upset about the traffic, don't be," America said. Li blinked and looked over at him curiously. "New York's got a lot of people, so it takes a while to get places if you're in a car, but it isn't much farther to my place. We could walk, if we didn't have to look after the car."

"It's not the time," Li muttered. "I'm just thinking about something." She turned her head to look out the window, trying to keep herself from taking out any of her growing anger on America. It wasn't him she was mad at: it was Summer, and the Tóngyī Shìjiè, and this whole situation in general that was making Li mad!

"Okay," America said cheerfully. He reached forward and pressed a button on the dashboard of his car, and extremely loud music began to play. Li jumped, and pressed herself back against her seat as she realized there was someone in the front of America's car, singing and playing instruments. Were they a prisoner, forced to make music whenever America pressed that button? How could he do something like that? Did it say something about her that Li wasn't sure it was that bad of an idea…?

"N-not so loud!" Li leaned forward and knocked on the dashboard, hoping to get the musician's attention. "Hey! You in there! Quieter!"

"Hey, Li? What are you doing?" America asked suspiciously.

"Telling the man in the hood to be quieter," Li replied with a small scowl.

"Yeah, you turn the volume down like this," America grabbed a knob on the dashboard and turned it slowly. As it turned, the music got quieter, until it was bearable for Li. "There's nobody in the hood of my car. The radio's just on."

"The what's on?" Li frowned.

"Radio?" America tapped a screen on the dashboard, which displayed a few symbols Li didn't recognize. "Hasn't anybody shown you one yet?" Li slowly shook her head "no." America grinned. "In that case, the hero will tell you all about them! So, basically, someone in a studio somewhere talks into a microphone, and you can hear them by turning on your radio! There are all sorts of stations, too, so you can listen to music, or the news, or the weather, though the weather's pretty much news anyways, plus if there's an emergency the government can use the radio to tell people about it, and it was pretty useful for Japan when he had that earthquake! You get it now?"

"No," Li stared at the screen in confusion.

"Oh. Well, the hero doesn't explain stuff anyways!" America grinned. "So, when we get to my place, I was thinking we could watch some horror movies! I've got a bunch, but Japan is too busy working on his nuclear plant to watch them with me and nobody else will."

"Movies?" Li considered groaning in exasperation, but didn't want to seem impolite. "Um, America, I've been in a plane for hours. I'd really like to go to sleep when I get to your home. Maybe in the morning."

"No way!" America protested, eyes widening in panic. "I have to watch it tonight, when it's spookier! And there's no way I'm watching it alone! You gotta watch it with me!"

"America, please, I—" Li was prepared to start a monologue about how tired she was, and just wanted to sleep, but she made the mistake of looking over at America. He was giving her a very good rendition of Saber-Toothed Moose-Lion cub eyes, the kind Kuzon used to give Li when he wanted to spend the day with her instead of in class.

"Please?" America pleaded. Li gulped. Sh-she was strong enough to not fall for it…she was…she…

* * *

"So, what's this movie about?" Li sighed and flopped back against America's couch. She rubbed the fabric covering the cushion, wondering if she would fall asleep before the movie was over. The sun had set while America drove her here, depriving Li of the energy boost she got while the sun's heat reached the world, and now she was even more tired than before.

"You'll see," America laughed nervously. He set a bowl of white stuff—popcorn, he'd called it—on a table in front of his couch, and picked up a small rectangular box. America's New York home was a penthouse apartment at the top of a skyscraper, and was about as large as a typical noble's home in Royal Caldera City, the volcanic section of the Fire Nation Capital. One wall of his living room was all glass, giving a magnificent view of the city below. The television was placed against the wall right of the huge window, and the couch was ten feet away. An armchair, turned at a slight angle, was in the space between the couch and the window-wall.

Li watched America open the thin box in his hands and take out a small disk of some reflective metal. "What's that?" she asked, leaning forward.

"It's the movie," America explained. "Guess you don't have DVDs in the Fire Nation?"

"No," Li shook her head. "Nor do we have television, radios, cell phones, gelato, pizza, or guns." The sun had set some time ago, and she just wanted to sleep. Thankfully it was warm in America's home, and the couch was absorbing Li's body heat quickly. Snuggling back into the warm fabric, Li was tempted to just go to sleep and let America watch the movie on his own. It wasn't like she'd be able to understand the people in it, anyways…

America pressed a button and turned the television on, then started to fiddle with a small black box on a shelf underneath the television. A thin piece of it slid out, and he placed the disk in an indent before it slid back into the box proper. The television screen turned blue, then started to display the symbols Li kept seeing in Europe.

"All right! L-let's go!" America sat on the couch, the far end from where Li was sitting, and grabbed a pillow propped up against the back of the couch. Music started to play from the television, and a forest appeared on the screen.

Someone started talking, and Li jumped. She could understand it! America was clutching his pillow and shaking, not taking much notice of anything around him. It didn't seem he would be much help. Unsure of what to do, Li tried to focus on the television.

That was pretty easy—even when she couldn't understand the speakers, television had fascinated Li. Denmark had explained to her that the people in the television couldn't see or hear her, and were basically recordings of people from other places being played back to viewers. Armed with that knowledge, Li had asked France and Spain about what sort of events were recorded. Primary among their answers were plays, only the plays were created in such a way that it was less like sitting in an audience and more like being in the midst of the story itself. Other things, important political or cultural occurrences, sometimes historical events or battles, were also "filmed."

France had offered to show Li several of his favorite films, but Spain had made an offhand comment that warned Li away from accepting. Spain and Romano had argued over what to show Li, and had settled on a show that Romano called a "soap opera." The characters were all ordinary people living in a small town, and the program seemed to detail the events of their lives. Li was intrigued by the display of common life in Italy (or was the show set in Spain? Romano and Spain had both spoken phrases in their languages to illustrate the differences, but Li had a hard time telling the two languages apart).

Li watched the pictures on the screen shift rapidly, voices and music blurring together to give the barest of details about a show called "Pirates of the Caribbean, 3." It changed to a show called "Spider-Man 3, then "Transformers." Li watched as people in strange clothing—with several that were vaguely reminiscent of some Earth Kingdom designs—drew swords and spoke in intense voices, a man in a skintight black outfit swung on ropes that appeared from his wrists, and gigantic machines battled each other and destroyed their surroundings.

Then everything went silent, and the screen briefly turned black. America took his face out of his pillow and began to stare at the screen, lightly trembling. Assuming the actual "movie" was starting, Li leaned back against the couch. More of this world's symbols appeared, white against the black background, and America whimpered.

"What does it say?" Li asked.

"I-it says…" America gulped. "It says, 'The darkest souls are not those which choose to exist within the hell of the abyss, but those which choose to break free from the abyss and move silently among us.'"

"Oh," Li wasn't sure what to say to that. "Um…pleasant?" On the screen, someone wearing a strange mask was holding a creature very similar in appearance to an elephant-rat and whispering a hello.

Reaching forward, Li grabbed some of the popcorn and put it in her mouth. It had little taste, but America had sprinkled butter and salt onto it to add some flavor—not nearly as much as Li was used to. What she wouldn't do for some nice, flaming-hot fire flakes…

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

Images of a young boy playing began to intersperse with black screens and white symbols. Li blinked, surprised. Was the "movie" over already? The last part had been…well. Shooting a killer that you didn't know was your older brother…and then it just ended?

Li turned her head to ask America what was going on in the movie, only to find he was no longer on the couch. When had he left? The television was so fascinating, Li had been totally absorbed by the images, despite not understanding some of the story. It seemed that, in the space of the movie, America…had vanished?

"America?" Li called hesitantly, wondering where he was. "Are you still here?"

"Y-yeah," someone called from behind the couch. Li looked over the back, and saw America there, curled up into a fetal position and trembling. He was pale, and looked like he had seen a spirit.

"Um…are you okay?" Li blinked.

"S-sure I a-m!" He curled up a little tighter. "I-is it ov-er?"

"The movie? I don't know, but I think it is," Li glanced back at the screen, which was now scrolling white symbols on a black screen. "I can't really read your characters, but it looks like the story is over.

"Really? It is?" America shot to his feet, a huge grin on his face. "All right! I got through the whole thing, even though it was really scary, because I'm the hero!"

"Yes you did…" Li sat down and reached for the popcorn bowl. Her fingers brushed the bottom, not finding any kernels. Had she eaten it all? That blew the top…

"Were you scared? I wasn't!" America boasted. Li shook her head no. "Aww, it's okay if you were! Hey, I get it! A little kid being driven to kill by a Celtic curse? Totally freaky!"

"There was nothing about…"Celtic" curses," Li ran her finger on the bottom of the popcorn bowl, gathering a little butter and salt. She licked it off her finger, then reached back into the bowl for more. "Just a child going crazy and killing people. Then the girl who turned out to be his sister shot him, and I think it ended."

"Yeah, but this is a remake of an older movie!" America walked over to a shelf and took another small box down. "This is the first, original one! There are a bunch of sequels, and I think the fifth or sixth one talks about Michael Myers killing because of a curse on his house!"

"Umm…okay, but why would you make a new one if you still have the old ones?" Li glanced into the popcorn bowl, and saw that she had eaten all the butter and salt left.

"Because the old ones weren't cool enough anymore," America shrugged. "Hey, you wanna watch—"

"Not really," Li put the popcorn bowl on the table and debated how she could tactfully point out to America that it was time to sleep. "What time is it?"

"Uhh…" America glanced at his watch. Everybody Li met seemed to have one. The devices told time, but Li couldn't recognize the symbols and was too embarrassed to ask. "Wow, after midnight. You're right, we can watch these tomorrow."

"Thank you," Li stood up. "I'm going to the guest room, then. Are you going to use the bathroom first?"

"Nah, you can use it," America turned to his television. "I'm just gonna put in the original movie…get ready for watching it tomorrow, yeah."

"All right," Li gave a quick bow and walked out of the living room. She paused to remember which way the guest room was, and started to hum a folk song as she walked towards it. Behind her, she could have sworn she heard the television starting to play another movie…


	43. World

**Me: My posts are getting later and later in the day...**

**Li: Because you're sleeping in more.**

**Me: *eyeroll* Sadly true. I don't own Avatar or Hetalia. Here's my next chapter...and now I'm gonna go pass out =.= Sleeeeeep...**

* * *

Sunlight was pouring into America's living room through the window-wall. Li suppressed a groan and threw her forearm over her eyes, trying to block out the light. Vague recollections of the light meaning it was morning, and something about America wanting to spend the whole night playing video games, floated through the Fire Nation girl's head. All were meaningless to her in light of the much more pressing issue of the sun interfering with her sleep.

Mmm…sleep…

Wait…something was bugging her. Something very important. Pele, she should know this…but she really wanted to sleep…but this was important…but, sleep…important…sleep…

The important thing won out, and Li forced her eyes open. She was lying on America's couch, with a kink in her neck and her back hurting. Whatever the important thing was, it was not in her immediate line of sight, so Li stretched her back—ow—and pushed herself up into a sitting position.

Her first discovery was that the television was still on, and an image of a young boy floating against a black backdrop hovered above two boxes with text in them. The next discovery was America, leaning against the couch near where Li's feet had been, sleeping peacefully. His glasses were still on his face, albeit crooked, and the game controller was in his hands. Strewn across his coffee table—or that's what he'd said it was called—were the remains of three pizzas, several large bottles of what he called "soda," and a huge bowl of popcorn.

Ah. Yes, now Li remembered what had happened. America had wanted Li to stay up all night and play video games with him. After Li got frustrated with playing his games, on the basis of her always "dying" ten or so minutes in, America took over and began playing a game that had "cut-scenes" and action like a movie—something about people dying but still walking around, and an island resort near a laboratory where a disease causing the aforementioned problem had begun.

The thought of the dead rising as flesh-eating monsters sent a chill down Li's spine. Old Fire Nation legends told of similar creatures, thousands of years ago, that had ravaged the Dragon Isles until humans there were nearly wiped out. It had taken the dragon's gift of fire to humans, the creation of the first Firebenders, for the scourge to be contained. Even millennia later, the tradition of burning their dead to prevent them from rising again stayed strong.

No, she was getting off-track. There was something important Li needed to remember…but what…

Wait. Li glanced out the window, and mentally searched for the direction of the sun. It was climbing high in the sky, two-thirds of the way to its zenith at noon.

When did Li's flight leave? Wasn't it at…noon?

Oh dear Pele.

"America! Wake up! America!" Li leaned over and shook the nation's shoulder frantically. "It's getting close to noon! We have to leave! My flight to Vienna…America, wake up!"

"Nngh? Eh?" America blinked his eyes open. "Ugh…Li? Did I doze off? When did it get so bright?"

"Get up!" Li cried. "My flight leaves at noon!"

"Eh?" America's eyes snapped open. He sat up, almost hitting his head against Li's, and looked at a device he called a "digital clock." Shaking his head to focus his sleep-bleared eyes, he squinted to read the screen of the clock. Li had asked him about the symbols on it during her second day with him, and she thought the first symbol might be a "nine." Maybe. It could also be "six," which America had mentioned was a lot like an upside-down nine, and Li wasn't sure which of them had the square at the top and which had the square at the bottom.

None of that mattered, though, because Li could feel the sun's position and knew it was approaching late morning. Considering the traffic in New York, it might already be too late for Li to arrive on time for the plane's departure.

"Woah! You're right!" America yelped. "Hurry, grab your things!" The nation leapt to his feet, again narrowly avoiding hitting his head against Li's, and dashed off out the door. "I'll get my coat and stuff! Hurry!" He called over his shoulder.

Li got off the couch a bit more slowly, thanks to her stiff limbs and back, and ran as fast as she could towards the guest room. Her things had sort of…spread out, in the four-ish days she had been staying at America's, and she couldn't remember what was supposed to go in what bag. She wasn't even sure if she could repack everything so it would all fit! Ugh, she couldn't wait to get to her room at Austria's home, where there was a nice dresser she could put all of her things in…

The guest room was even worse than Li remembered. When had she strewn her socks all over the floor in a spiral pattern? Why was her red scarf knotted in two places? Had her bags exploded in the middle of the night? And what had happened to her new coat?

Without regard for order, Li started to shove things into the nearest bag she could see. A lone sock was swept under the bed in her haste, and a glass of water on the bedside table rocked dangerously before it was moved to the window ledge. From the window ledge, Li retrieved the paper panda-rose she'd gotten from Italy (delivered by Germany). Care was taken with the paper-folded flower, putting it in a "Tupperware" container before gently placing it over the strange pipes from Greece, then covering both with a mess of jeans and shirts.

One bag filled up, and Li somehow squeezed a few more things into it before forcing the zipper around it to shut. Its seams strained dangerously, but there were no ripping sounds, and so Li decided it was safe enough for the time being. She set the full bag aside and pulled one that was still mostly empty closer to her, and leaned over to gather a few things several feet away.

A door slammed shut, and Li heard someone—presumably America, as he was the only other person in the house with her—running towards her guest room. Another bag filled up to its capacity and beyond, then was shoved to a clear space to wait transport. America appeared in the doorway, panting.

"Are you ready yet? I'll take these!" He didn't wait for an answer and seized the bags Li had filled, carrying them towards the elevator to the lobby. Li grabbed her final bag, and started stuffing it as best she could.

In the end, three pairs of jeans and a long-sleeved red shirt were left over. They couldn't fit into the bag, not without risking tearing something, and there was nowhere else to put them. Li felt herself start to panic, and the lights brightened dangerously before she started a calming breathing exercise and looked around for an alternate way of storing it. She noticed an old toy soldier that had been sitting on the window ledge was missing, probably behind the dresser or under the bed. There was no time to look, though, because she had to go!

Gathering the extra clothing in her arms and grabbing the bag, Li left the guest room and rushed towards the elevator. She nearly ran into America on the way, and dropped the jeans and shirt by accident. "I'll mail them to you later!" America told her, grabbing her arm and pulling Li away from the spare clothing. "Come on, hurry! The valet has my car waiting!"

Li's other two bags were waiting by the elevator. America grabbed one in each hand, and hit the "down" button with his socked foot. Realizing he would need shoes, Li grabbed a pair from the shoemat next to the elevator so he could put them on while they went down.

The elevator doors opened. They rushed in, pushed the ground floor button, and took a moment to breathe as the vertigo of the descending elevator began.

* * *

Huo groaned, and turned his head away from the light. Stupid light…why did it have to be so bright, and light-y, and stuff? His head was throbbing, and the light made it feel even worse.

"Nngh…" Huo moaned in protest of the noise, and rolled over. He fell out of the bed he was in and hit the floor painfully.

"Ow!" the Avatar yelped as pain flared through his nose. A tingling sensation quickly took over, soon followed by a vague numbness. Assured that it was similar to when someone accidentally hit him in the nose during training (or purposefully, in Li's case), Huo had the presence of mind to look around.

The room was ten feet by ten feet, with a ceiling a foot or so shorter than the walls. Whitewash had been applied to the walls, which were bare of any decoration. Underfoot, the floor was simple wooden boards varnished to a light brown. A bed, with tangled sheets and a lumpy pillow, was the only furniture. Set into the wall to the left of the bed was a door, closed at present and made of the same material as the floorboards. There were no windows Huo could see.

Wait, where was the light coming from? Huo peered at his shadow, and realized the light was from above him—straight above him, to be precise. He looked up to see a misshapen globe of glass, with light emanating from it. It was like those contraptions he had seen in Republic City, when he went to visit his grandparents—what were those things called, again? Light…globes? No, no…bulbs! That was it, lightbulbs!

Did that mean he was in Republic City? How had he gotten here? The last thing he remembered was Ru and Wulong falling, and he'd tried to catch them, but they'd fallen…down a…

Fallen down a hole. Wasn't that how some old legends about people going to different worlds started? Mysterious hole pops up, main character falls down, has some sort of adventure in a different world? Several popular fiction writers in the Earth Kingdom had started publishing stories along those lines recently.

Oh no…he was living out a bad novel. Huo sighed. Maybe this one wouldn't have any wars to be solved, like that spectacularly _bad_ story where, in the alternate world of Yutian, the "Shadow Nation" attacked the "Light Nation" (latest book in a series about a normal Earth Kingdom boy discovering he was the personification of the Green King and finding his destiny, copyright Huai Zouzhe). And he still thought the main character was a blatant ripoff of Avatar Aang. It was his own past life, he should know what the guy was like!

Bad novels aside, though, Huo should probably figure out where he was and what was going on. Ru and Wulong would likely be nearby, and if he was lucky Yue had followed them down the hole and was waiting to get them out. Someone had to have put him in the bed, too, so Huo would thank the residents of this place before going.

Plan firmly established, Huo got to his feet and tried the door. It opened easily, and Huo stepped through it into a long hallway as whitewashed as the room behind him. Doors were spaced at even intervals down the length of the hallway, all uniform. The ceiling was higher than in Huo's room by several yards. Checking to make sure there was nothing in the room he'd want to take with him—he had a sneaking sense he'd never be able to find this particular room again once he'd left—Huo shut the door behind him.

The hallway seemed to stretch away forever to his right, but to his left Huo could see the end—a larger door than the others, made of the same wood as them and the floor. It looked more promising than the other, uniform doors, so Huo began to walk towards it.

His footsteps echoed loudly in the hall, each slap of his boots on the floor hitting his ears at least ten times before dissipating. Huo paused and frowned down at his feet, wondering what it was about them that was making so much noise. The door hadn't made a sound when he shut it. If the sound of the door shutting hadn't made so much noise, it followed to reason that footsteps wouldn't either.

Experimentally, Huo tapped his foot. The noise was as loud as a tank rolling by. He leaned over a bit to reach a door, and opened it to see a room virtually identical to the one he had woken in. No noise came from the door, it's hinges, or the doorknob turning. With a swift motion, Huo slammed the door shut. By all rights, given the noise of his footsteps, the door slamming should have sounded like an explosion. Huo heard nothing.

Interesting! Huo tapped out the first line of a folk song, and listened to the echoes carefully. It was like a chorus of drummers playing the same thing, with each drummer waiting a beat after the person before them started until playing themself.

What would talking sound like? Humming? Whistling? Huo pursed his lips and whistled the first line of his favorite Earth Kingdom folk song, "Lad in Green." The noise bounced off the walls, and when the echoes came back it sounded like a tree full of birds were having a disagreement on when to start the melody.

"Awesome," Huo grinned. His own voice called back to him, "Awesome…awesome…awesome…"

Oooh. What would happen if he tried Bending here? You couldn't Bend in the Spirit World, regrettably, but if this was a mortal world he could probably…

Wait a second. Wasn't he supposed to be doing something?

Riiight…finding Ru and Wulong, getting out of here and finding Li…yeah. He might want to get to that. So, finding Ru and Wulong…well, that big door was probably his best bet for learning anything. The girls might be together, or they might be separate, and they might be behind any of the identical doors. Looking back the way he had come, Huo couldn't tell which one he had been in himself (a fact which he had totally called, by the way).

Big door. Answers. Get Ru and Wulong, go to find Li. Yup. That's what he would do.

Huo turned towards the big door and walked to it, purposefully timing his footsteps so they echoed the Fire Nation Counting Song (which was basically the same as the Earth Kingdom Counting Song, only the Earth Kingdom version didn't have the singer mentioning the Fire Lord's greatness at the end).

"…all for the Fire Lord," Huo sang under his breath as he reached the door. This close, he could see tiny carvings in it, tiny swirls and whorls that followed the grain of the wood and the age rings so closely you had to be a foot from the door to realize it had any irregularity in its surface at all. A simple brass doorknob was on the left side of the door. Reaching forward, Huo turned it, and the door opened inwards. It creaked, the first noise from anything native to here that Huo had heard yet.

Peeking around the doorframe, Huo saw a very strange room. It was much larger than an ordinary room in a house, with a ceiling as high as that in the hallway. The far wall seemed to be fifty feet away, with large windows all along its length. Lamps were set strategically around the room so that everything was illuminated. Everything followed a blue color scheme, from pale robin-bat-egg to midnight blue. Long, low couches and divans were scattered here and there, usually set near short tables. Bookshelves filled with books ran around the walls, framing the windows so that there were ledges large enough to sit on.

A woman with a soft white glow about her was sitting in one of the window ledges, looking outside at the blue sky, a book sitting forgotten in her lap. She was turned away from Huo, so he couldn't see her face. Several pillows rested between her back and the side of the bookshelves.

"Yue?" Huo called. The Moon Spirit turned slowly and smiled at him. One hand raised from her lap to beckon him into the room.

"You've been asleep for an hour," she spoke gently as Huo slipped inside and shut the door behind him. "Ru and Wulong are in other rooms. We must wait for them to recover as well before leaving this world. Neither of them have slept well in the past three days, I'm afraid."

"Can't we just leave now, while they're still asleep?" Huo wove his way through the couches and tables until he was standing next to Yue's ledge. "Ru will be furious that we wasted time."

"I realize that," Yue dipped her head, "but she will be useless if she does not rest and recover her strength. It's a pity there is no food here, or I would insist she eat before we go as well."

"There's no food? Where are we?" Huo looked out the window, and recoiled in surprise. There was no ground! He moved to a window ledge not occupied by a powerful spirit, and pressed himself as close to the glass as he dared. No matter what angle he looked down at, he couldn't see the earth. "Yue?"

"Look up," she suggested. Huo did so, and felt his jaw drop open.

"There's…ground…in…the…sky…" He forced out. Sure enough, a rather lovely garden could be seen four or five stories overhead, complete with birds and a stream. "Yue…Yue, there's ground in the…I can see a bird flying upside-down…Yue, what in the name of Nüwa is going on?"

"It's how this world is," Yue explained. There was a soft thump as she closed her book, and fabric rustled as she slipped off of her seat. Huo tore his gaze from the bizarre garden-in-the-sky, and looked at Yue with wide eyes. She smiled, and placed the book in her hands on a nearby table.

"What do you know about other mortal worlds, Avatar?" She asked. Huo blinked and shook his head. "Ah. I myself do not know everything about them, or even what one could expect to find in most of them, but I do know the number of mortal realms is countless. Some worlds are similar, and others are radically different. In some worlds, you could fly trillions of miles away from the earth, to places where there is no air, and find other planets, or touch suns and moons. Other worlds are the size of a small room, with nothing else surrounding them—and not merely empty space, but simply nothing at all."

"So…why is the ground in the sky?" Huo looked outside again. It occurred to him that if trees in the ground were typically thought of as being right-side up, Huo and the room he was in were the upside-down ones. Cool…

"That is how this world is," Yue shrugged. "It was created as the mental retreat of a young woman. She has since grown old and died, leaving this place empty. Time had stopped here until we arrived, giving time a reason to flow once more."

"Time…stopped? For how long?" Huo frowned as he considered the puzzle. If time stopped, anything here wouldn't have noticed because it had been stopped as well. Comparing it to time in the Spirit World was likely useless, because Spirit World time and normal world time didn't always match up.

Wait a second…if Spirit World time and normal world time didn't always match up…and the Spirit World was the most reliable way to travel between worlds…

Yue saw Huo's eyebrows lift as he figured out one of the problems with travelling between worlds. She had remained silent as he thought, allowing him to work it out for himself. "Yue…does time pass differently in different worlds?"

"It does," Yue inclined her head. "I cannot predict how much time will pass in your own world, or the Spirit World, or the world Li is in, until this is over. For all I know, Li's soul has existed in a different world for a year already, and it has already decayed."

"Then why are we waiting here? We should hurry and find Li!" Huo exclaimed. He started to run for the door, intent on finding Ru and Wulong, but Yue placed a hand on his chest. Despite having the appearance of a slender young woman, the Moon Spirit was strong.

"No, Avatar, we should not hurry," Yue spoke firmly. "If we hurry, we will make mistakes and risk doing greater damage to our situation. Hurry is why Ru slipped, causing her, Wulong, and you to fall into this world and delay us. I will not accept haste without forethought."

"Maybe it's different for spirits like you, but Li's getting more and more in danger with each passing second!" Huo protested. "Mortals don't have the leisure of waiting forever, we get old and die! Li's only got a year, who knows how much longer she has left by now, we have to g—!"

"Avatar," Yue interrupted sternly. Huo fell silent. "We are unable to travel without Ru and Wulong being awake. Can you carry two sleeping, heavy girls, all by yourself? Let them have their rest, so that when we start out again we will be able to go quickly and without the hindrance of fatigue. Fatigue will lead to further, possibly longer, delays in the future. If we do not take advantage of this opportunity to rest, our own haste will endanger Li later. Do you see my reasoning?"

"Yes," Huo admitted. "I can guarantee you Ru won't like it…but it's for the best. Part of the reason the Tóngyī were able to launch their surprise attack last summer was because I'd been too exhausted from all the planning for my party."

Yue lowered her hand, and turned to the bookshelves. "The creator of this world read many books," she told Huo absently. "All of those stories can be found on these shelves, exactly as she read them. I will never cease to be amazed at the creativity of humans…despite having once been one myself."

"How did this world get created?" Huo sat down on the ledge again, looking up at the ground. "You mentioned it was created by someone mental?"

"It was the mental retreat of a young woman," Yue corrected him. She pulled a book from the shelf and settled in a couch facing Huo's. "When she was a child, she would imagine this place to escape from hearing her parents argue about her younger brother's illness. Later, it became her retreat as an adult from the stresses of life. The ground in the sky was something she always thought entertaining. Because she loved books, and had a perfect memory for everything she had ever read, she would come here to 'reread' them."

"So…just by imagining a place, it becomes real?" Huo watched a bird fly past the window. "That's…greatly inefficient."

"Not just by imagining it, no," Yue disagreed. "But if a world is possible, it can be created. Simply thinking of a world where everyone wears blue hats won't create that world. You must have other details, too, to explain why they wear blue hats, and hundreds of other details about that world, for it to exist. And then perhaps someone in that world will think of a world where everyone has black hair, and create details for it until that world truly exists. Creating empty worlds such as this one is easier, as it requires less details to exist."

"So…if a person creates a new world for a story, that world will actually exist somewhere else?" Huo paused. "What about this world? The ground in the sky isn't quite plausible."

"But this world was so strong and clear in the mind of its creator, it became real," Yue shrugged. "I will not pretend to know everything about worlds and how they are formed. All I know of this world is from reading the creator's biography, which is rather informative about how the world formed, if nothing else."

"There's a book about how this world formed?" Huo's eyebrows shot up, and he looked away from the window towards the bookshelves. "Where?"

"The third book on the fifth shelf up, to your left," Yue smiled. She lowered her eyes to the book in her hands, a story about a young woman from an oppressive society being carried away by a magical horse and becoming one of the most important officials in her country. Its pages and cover were worn, the spine cracked in several places. This had been a favorite book, then, read over and over by the creator of this place in this world of the mind.

Yue wondered when this place had stopped being simply a vivid dream and started being a world of its own. Had it taken years of thought and daydream? Or was it created in mere minutes, for the joy of the creator, an escape from the world of hard work and responsibilities?

"Um…Yue? I can't read the characters," Huo held up the biography. Yue glanced up, surprised. "They're kinda weird. Is this like the creator's secret code or something…?"

"Oh…no, I'm sorry. I'd forgotten about the language difference," Yue smiled apologetically. "The creator of this world wrote with different symbols than your world uses. Spirits can understand all forms of communication, so I didn't realize you wouldn't be able to read any of the stories here."

"Why did she use different characters?" Huo placed the biography atop several other books on its shelf. "Did she make them up herself?"

"No, Avatar. Her world developed them," Yue explained. "People in various worlds have developed different styles of writing, and different ways of saying the same words, so that there are almost more languages than there are worlds. When a new world is created, it depends upon its creator to determine what the inhabitants speak. If no language is specified, the inhabitants speak the creator's native tongue—if a language is named, the inhabitants will speak that language." Huo gave the Moon Spirit a blank look. "Do you know what a different language is?"

"I know what language is…how you talk," Huo wrinkled his nose in thought, "but you're saying there are lots of different ways of talking?"

"Yes, there are," Yue nodded. "Spirits, as I have mentioned, understand all forms of communication, and we are understood by all in a person's original form of communication. I cannot demonstrate a different language for you, because I am not truly speaking any language, I am communicating and being understood…oh, I don't know if I'm communicating this right at all!" Yue scowled and lowered the book. Her air of calm wisdom had bled away as she spoke, leaving her frustrated.

"No, I think I get it," Huo shook his head. "People have different ways of saying the same things, and when you have that you have a different 'language.' Spirits don't actually talk, they just make themselves understood, and to someone listening to the spirit it's like the spirit is using that person's primary method of communication?" He stopped for a moment, and chuckled. "If you're talking to a deaf person, do they see you handsigning?"

"I wouldn't know," Yue admitted. "I've never spoken to a deaf person before." Her frustration was seeping away now, in favor of bewilderment. Huo had that effect on people, and apparently on spirits too.

"You should try that sometime!" Huo grinned. "Ooh, what if they shut their eyes? I think my dad's cousin knows a deaf guy…when we get back to our world we should look him up and test it out!"

"Um…Avatar…I'm the moon spirit," Yue wondered if she should be laughing at his suggestion. "I have other duties besides experimenting with the communication capabilities of spirits."

"But how do you know this won't be important later on?" Huo pressed. "What if you have to communicate with a blind and deaf person in the future, and you don't know if you can, so you don't and the world ends?" The Avatar's eyes widened as he spoke, until they were almost completely round when he finished. Yue realized she was leaning back, and quickly straightened herself.

"That's very unlikely, Avatar," Yue pointed out. "And in the meantime, I _am_ the Moon Spirit. It's my duty to rule over the sky at night. Technically, I am in every sky whenever there is a moon out. There's no time for me to play around."

"Aw, you can take an hour off once in a while, can't you?" Huo flapped a hand dismissively. "Like what we're doing now! And if you're technically in every sky with a moon, why haven't you seen Li in whatever world she's in? Unless time is going really slowly for her there and she's yet to be under a moon, in which case we can mess around as long as we like."

"There are more moons than there are worlds," Yue answered, "so I see too much from the skies to remember it all, even for a spirit. I probably have seen Li, but be it once or a million times, I don't know. And of course I cannot abandon my duties to play around with my powers! If it was important to know, I would have found out before now. Since the issue has not come up, I must believe it is irrelevant."

"Or it's just rare, or something," Huo shrugged. "If you don't want to, that's fine. I just like knowing what's going on so I can be prepared."

Yue frowned. "That…does not match with the stories I have heard my people saying about you," she studied Huo carefully. "Didn't you and your brother manage to melt half of the Chief's palace when you were eight and four, respectively?"

"Well…yes, we did," Huo agreed. "But in our defense, we didn't realize fur was so flammable. Or that the ice wouldn't melt into water and put the fire out. And the blame really should lie with the person who thought it was safe to leave two kids alone in a room with a huge fire going in the middle of it. That's not important, though."

"The circumstances of the Water Tribe's greatest building's near-destruction aren't important?" Yue resisted the urge to sigh. "Your priorities seem a little…different, from what would be expected. That building was important to the cultural heritage of your mother's people. Is the Avatar not supposed to protect such things?"

"Of course I am!" Huo laughed. "But I'm more concerned with my friend's life at the moment. So the destruction of big, important buildings that could kill anyone trapped inside isn't my first priority…wow. Something about that seems wrong, but I can't tell what. Don't suppose you can?"

Yue blinked. She honestly had no answer for that. Spirits didn't speak to mortals very often, much less the stranger sorts of mortals. Avatar Huo…was definitely of the stranger kind. All the past Avatars had been, to a degree, but most of them were willing to respect the Spirits and give them the respect powerful beings such as them deserved.

Avatar Huo…did not seem to realize that the spirits weren't ordinary mortals he could joke with and offend at his leisure.

And how, exactly, had he managed to render the Moon Spirit speechless? Yue may not have been a spirit for long, but the knowledge passed to her by the late Tui and what the Ocean Spirit La had told her since that night at the North Pole…shouldn't she have managed to pass along a good retort? Maybe the problem was her human origins…that already had many older, more powerful spirits looking down on her.

Avatars…if they weren't necessary, something from the Spirit World would have ended the cycle a long time ago.

* * *

Li sighed in relief as she sat down on her bed at Austria's house. The kitchen was looking nice, spotlessly clean and smelling brand-new. How things could smell new, Li didn't know, but for some reason it was a distinguishable scent. Austria had seemed content with the new appliances, and Hungary—who was visiting again, and said it was to be sure Li was acquainted with how to operate the new oven and the microwave—had promised she would cook pancakes for supper. All of Li's bags had survived the two planes and car ride without bursting open, and were sitting next to the door, waiting for Li to get up and unpack them.

Instead, Li stroked the red bedspread with a finger, enjoying the feeling of cotton. Hungary had suggested ones with flowers, stripes, dots, or mountain scenes, but Li had maintained that red was the only color she wanted. There were no tapestries or Fire Nation insignias in her room, but so long as her sheets were red…so long as she had something, however small, to remind her of home, Li could feel better.

Home…she felt a pang of longing. Home had spice tea, and fire flakes, and smoked sea slug, and roast meats and soups and stews flavored with hot spices. There were pagodas, and red-tiled roofs, and fires burning in braziers wherever you looked. Home had people with hair of brown and black, eyes of gray and gold and brown, wearing clothing with shoulder spikes and yellow trim, their hair up in topknots.

_But home doesn't have airplanes_, Li's mind whispered. _Or telephones, or cell phones, or television, or games and soft drinks and chips and junk food and clocks that don't need to be wound or adjusted every other day…_

_Home doesn't have all the new friends you're making._

No, Li told herself firmly, it doesn't. Home has something better. Home has your other friends. Home has the Fire Nation.

She forced herself to sit up, and went over to her bags. Maybe unpacking would help her focus on something other than home. Her bags looked like the slightest touch would rip one of the seams, so she needed to get them empty before anything was damaged. Doing that before supper seemed like the smart thing to do.

One bag had been emptied and the contents sorted according to type, and a second bag was being given similar treatment, when Li found the toy soldier. It was battered and chipped, the paint peeling and in some places completely gone. His face had a small mustache and green eyes, the mouth set in a crooked half-smile.

Oops…she must have swept it into the bag along with her clothing. Li set the toy soldier on her bedside table. Later, she would call America and tell him about finding the soldier, and ask him if he wanted her to mail it back to him or send it with Austria when the Nations had their next world meeting.

Until then, Li had clothing to shove haphazardly—er, place—into the dresser.


	44. Tehran

**Li: Karen did not get any sleep last night, and she's passed out somewhere right now while I update for her.**

**She does not own Avatar or Hetalia, just her OCs and several concepts for how the various worlds work in this storyverse.**

* * *

Deserts. Pounding heat, relentless sun, bare sand and scarce vegetation. To survive, you needed to keep as much of your skin covered as you could, while not overheating from the layers of clothing you wore. Water was hard to find, unless you knew your surroundings: then it was more a matter of keeping other, stronger people from driving you away from your water source.

It was a mystery how people could live in places like deserts. Yet they did.

At least the Sandbenders of the Earth Kingdom had ways of traveling through the Si Wong Desert. Li thought of the camels she had seen from the window of the plane, and couldn't see how those creatures alone facilitated travel in this desert. So they supposedly didn't need to drink for days at a time…that alone couldn't possibly make them suitable! At least camelephants had their long noses for grabbing things, or scrounging up their own food during travel. Giant rhinoceri beetles could drag three times their weight in supplies with no problem, and hardly had to eat. But…camels?

Well, there was the heat. Lovely, lovely heat…after spending so much time in cold places, it was hard not to dance around and sing at how _warm_ it was here. Never mind that too much time here without proper protection would kill you—death by heat was more than welcome! Li could live with death by heat! So long as she died warm!

"Hey, we're here," the driver shook Li's shoulder. She started, and looked away from the window. The town looked nicer here than it had elsewhere, and a large building at least five stories high was to the car's left. "I'll be waiting here for you when you're done. Can't believe they'd send a kid as young as you on courier duty for the UN…make sure you don't get lost in there, all right? Got the package?"

"Yes, I do," Li patted the small box in her lap. "I was told someone would meet me just inside the door, so it shouldn't be too long."

"Good, good," the driver grinned. "You know where to find me."

Li chuckled and pushed open the door. The air conditioner's cold air almost immediately flew out, letting in the heat of the Middle Eastern desert. Not that Li minded: the Fire Nation had similar temperatures almost all year round, and that was a humid heat. Dry heat was no problem.

The door to the building where the Nations were meeting was made of glass, and Li could see guards behind them. As she entered, she gave them a smile and a nod, and two of them returned the gesture. Li stepped through a metal detector, had to do it again after placing her package and the contents of her pockets into a basket, and was admitted through to the main building.

Once inside the building proper, Li started to feel lost. Almost nobody was around, and the people she could see looked too busy to take her questions. America had promised to send someone to meet her once she got inside, but hadn't been able to tell her who before needing to rush off to catch his flight. Presumably this person would know what Li looked like, but if he didn't, what was Li supposed to do?

Hm. That was a bathroom over there, right? It had a very simplistic picture of a person with an unrealistic skirt on, which had indicated a woman's bathroom in most other places Li had been in this world, so it was a good bet. While the heat was all right, Li was starting to feel gritty from all the sand outside, and she wouldn't mind a chance to wet her face. And if she could corner someone in the bathroom, it was unlikely they'd be able to say no to her questions…

It was indeed a bathroom, and Li set the package down on a shelf so she could lean over a sink and splash some water onto her face. The water was cold, and despite the air conditioning in the building Li appreciated it. And, as the water quickly evaporated, Li had to admit that the intense heat and sunlight would make any Firebending she tried dangerous. Wherever the boost in strength was coming from, it wasn't helping, because it had the lights flickering dangerously whenever Li felt irritated.

A toilet flushed, and a woman in a dark olive soldier's uniform stepped out of a stall and over to a sink. Turning on the warm water, the woman started to wash her hands. She had dark hair and eyes, and skin a little lighter than most of the people Li had seen in the Middle East so far. It occurred to Li that she looked familiar, but Li wasn't sure where they might have met before. Maybe she'd seen her at a meeting…?

Wait, a meeting! America was supposed to be here to meet with the Middle Eastern Nations, right? Li thought this woman might be a Nation too. If she was a Nation, maybe she knew where to find America! Then Li could give him the package and go back to Austria's, and hopefully not destroy it with an exploding oven again. Italy and Poland had mentioned wanting to take Li shopping in Warsaw next week, and Lithuania had promised to teach Li how to cook the bigos she had enjoyed at his home. Mm, bigos…

"Excuse me?" Li addressed the woman nervously. "Are you…um, are you here for the meeting?"

"Huh? Yeah, I am. Why?" The woman asked Li. She narrowed her eyes briefly, then smiled. "Oh, you must be Li. I saw you a month and a half ago at Russia's. Why are you in Tehran?"

"I have to deliver something to America," Li wiped her still-damp hands on her jeans and picked the package up from the shelf. "He said it could get ruined if I mailed it, so I had to fly down here. Do you know where he is?"

"Well, he should be in the meeting room," the woman nodded in one direction. "Come with me. I know where it is." She started to walk out of the bathroom, clearly expecting Li to follow. A second later, Li complied.

The Nation woman navigated the halls easily, but Li was confused within a minute. Neither of them spoke, and the silence started to get awkward.

Awkward silences and Li did not sit well together, so Li asked a question. "What Nation are you?"

"Israel, formerly Palestine," the woman replied. Li nodded slowly—she had no idea where that Nation was on this world's map. "I'm on the Mediterranean Sea, above Egypt and under Lebanon. It's okay if you don't know where that is," she added as she caught sight of the look on Li's face. "Hardly anyone could tell you who my neighbors are off the top of their head. I don't expect you to have the world map memorized."

"Thanks, but I've been thinking lately that I should try to," Li sighed. "If I'm going to be working as Austria's maid, I'll be meeting more Nations eventually. It seems disrespectful not to have an idea of where they are…live…come from…am I making sense still?"

"You're confused over how to term the location of a Nation on a map?" Israel suggested. Li nodded. "Don't worry, it's hard for even a Nation to explain. Just go with 'where a Nation lives' and you should be fine."

"Okay. Thank you," Li grinned sheepishly. The two lapsed into silence once more.

A man with a mop, thus presumably a janitor, bumped into Israel. The mop clattered to the floor, and Israel jumped back. She produced a knife from seemingly nowhere, and held it before her in a defensive position. Startled, the janitor leaped back against the wall and started babbling, holding his hands up to show they were empty.

"Israel! Calm down!" Li exclaimed, nearly dropping America's package. Israel blinked, and glanced down at the knife in her hand. Her mouth twisted into a grimace, and she relaxed. The knife disappeared as mysteriously as it had appeared. The janitor didn't seem reassured by this, and stayed pressed to the wall, muttering something in his own language.

"Sorry…reflex…" Israel looked away. "Could you get his mop for him? I don't think he's going to move until we leave, and given what he's calling me, I shouldn't go near him."

"Sure," Li dragged the word out as she mulled over Israel's reaction. Carefully, so as not to drop America's package, Li leaned over and picked up the mop. She walked over to the janitor and offered it to him with a kind smile. He accepted it, and stopped speaking, but eyed Li and Israel suspiciously until they had walked down the hall and turned a corner.

Once they were out of sight, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a cellphone. "الهدف هو التوجه إلى الجانب الشمالي من المبنى ، مع واحد مصاحب، وربما دولة أخرى."

* * *

Li glanced at Israel, and wondered what she could say. The Nation's reaction to the mop falling was similar to how some old soldiers Li knew reacted to sudden noises. What had they called it…battle-shock? It was a debated issue, but the Fire Nation government had made counseling mandatory for anyone who had taken part in a battle, and encouraged bars to offer soldiers free beer every once in a while. Okay, the beer thing was more to keep the soldiers happy, but still…

"You don't know much about the situation over here, do you?" Israel spoke abruptly. Li shook her head, hoping Israel would keep speaking. Israel did. "It's really our own fault. Much of the Middle East used to be under Turkey's rule, but a little under a hundred years ago we started to rebel. The European Nations started to interfere, everyone wound up squabbling over who owned what and how some beliefs were more pure than others, and when the UN told me to be Israel again things just got worse…so…" the Nation took a deep breath.

"Long story short, we've had troubles for decades. And for ten years now, the actions of a few terrorists who aren't really associated with any of the Nations in particular have defined how people see most of us. America and I are on good terms, but he's started accusing some of the other Middle East Nations of supporting groups trying to kill him, and because I'm friends with him the others have started being harder on me."

"Wow," Li blinked. "That sounds…terrible. How has it gone on for so long? Aren't the other Nations helping you?"

"America and England have been sending troops, but they've been considering taking them away," Israel sighed. "Other European Nations have been helping, but some of the poorer ones are too busy dealing with their own problems. The Africans and South Americans need to focus on their own problems, a lot of the Asians have similar issues…Australia and his neighbors don't really do much…more and more of my people are thinking we need to solve our problems on our own, and they may be right."

"I see," Li nodded. She wasn't sure she actually understood what Israel was saying, but it was probably best to agree blindly and keep the Nation talking. Maybe the more Israel told Li about the situation, the more Li would understand. It sounded like the situation in this area was tense—and extremely dangerous. Getting caught up in any conflicts that were going on here could be bad. Gathering information was the best way Li could stay out of trouble.

Heh. Li, staying out of trouble. If her friends were here, they would laughing so hard they'd be in tears.

Israel stopped outside a pair of large wood doors. "Wait here," she told Li. "I'll go get America for you. Him and the others should be in the conference room. There's enough time before the conference for you to drop off the package and have America see you out."

"Thank you," Li bowed as best she could while holding a box, making Israel raise an eyebrow and snort in amusement. The Nation disappeared through the double doors, leaving Li alone in the hallway.

One of the things Li had learned to do over the years was to people-watch without seeming to. Her bodyguard and friend Ru had told Li years ago that if you observed the area around you closely, you could identify possible threats to yourself or your companions and prepare accordingly. Ru's skills at doing so far outstripped Li's, of course, but Li had picked up several tips.

Most of the people going by were men, a majority of whom were tanned and had dark black hair. Several paler-skinned men passed by in groups, with the occasional woman amongst them. All of the pale-skinned men, and a good number of the tanned men, were wearing what Li had come to recognize as suits—the white women wore versions of the suits that tailored to their figures better. Several of the tanned men were dressed in jumpsuits and carrying cleaning supplies, tending to the floors or windows. Li noted that, while the pale men were mostly clean-shaven, the tanned men had beards or mustaches or goatees.

The people in suits were ignoring the janitors, focusing instead on conversations with other people in suits or on pieces of paper in their hands. Li caught a few snatches of sentences she could understand, but the majority of what she heard might as well have been gibberish. Since the janitors were operating mostly unnoticed, Li decided to focus on them.

And…there were more janitors than she would have expected. Li counted twelve that she could see, all of them cleaning the floors or windows. Two were working on a stain on a wall, looking very unhappy about it. Was this number of cleaners normal here? Everything did seem very clean in the other parts of the building…was it some sort of measure of importance?

"Li!" America burst through the double doors suddenly, nearly whacking a janitor on the head. "You brought it! Awesome! Come on in, we can leave it with my bag and grab you a snack before I take you back out." He grabbed Li's wrist and pulled her into the conference room, beaming.

The janitor who had nearly been concussed glanced at one of the men working on the coffee stain. They made eye contact, and the one working on the stain nodded slightly. His companion placed the bottle of cleaning solution he'd been using onto a tray, and picked up a small, black canister.

* * *

Lanko peered around a corner, and signaled to his sister and Duyao that it was clear to continue. The girls slipped silently past him, and he glanced behind them one last time before following. Almost a full day in the city, going by southern days since later winter days at the North Pole were usually a few hours long each, and they were still managing to move undetected. That was good, very good. It made it all the more likely that they would finish the mission successfully, presumably without spiritual interference this time.

"How do you think Zhou's holding up?" Lanko whispered to his sister. She glanced back at him in annoyance, then shrugged.

"He's wearing a dead body as a suit, and wandering around the Northern Water Tribe with it," she replied. "If you'd been listening to the guards who passed us several hours ago, a young warrior named 'Atka' has apparently disappeared after having acted strangely near the end of his guard duty. Assuming Atka was the guard we—"

"_I_," Lanko corrected.

"—fine, _you_ killed, Zuzhou has managed to escape detection. The Chief will order some of the younger warriors to start searching the surrounding areas for Atka if he does not reappear by nightfall, taking the focus off of the city and making it easier for us to slip into the Spirit Oasis," Meiko rolled her eyes. "In short, I would say Zuzhou is 'holding up' quite well."

"Cool," Lanko stretched his back, and heard his spine crack. "So he actually managed to pass as human after leaving us? Guy's a quick learner."

"He is a spirit," Meiko pointed out. "I find it easy to believe that he would have more of a learning capacity than a normal human."

"Meh. Still cool," Lanko cracked the knuckles on his left hand. "How much farther to the Oasis?"

"Not far," Meiko assured him. "A couple of hours more, maybe three or four if we run into a delay."

"Can we stop talking now?" Duyao suggested. She pulled her parka more closely about her body, and shivered. Her teeth had stopped chattering an hour after putting on the parka, which Lanko had stolen from a nice-looking apartment. The Fire Nation girl now looked suitably Water Tribe, with her hood pulled up—she had covered most of her pale Fire Nation skin, leaving only her face and her gray eyes as hints to her nationality. Even her skin wasn't the most solid of clues, because several of the Northern Water Tribe's best hunter lines had paler skin than others.

Lanko shut his mouth and focused on the back alley. His boots crunched lightly on the snow floor, but thankfully there were no windows on the buildings to either side for people to look out and see them. Against his hip, his warrior's machete bounced, comforting with its presence. On Lanko's back were his whalejaw blade and bone club, the handles sticking through holes in his warrior's anorak.

Duyao slipped on a patch of ice, and Meiko quickly bended some of the snow up into a cushion behind her. "Apologies," Duyao murmured, righting herself. Lanko noted her patting her side and arms, likely making sure the poisoned needles hidden there had not come loose and were about to stab her.

"Be more careful," Meiko admonished, automatically reaching out to straighten Duyao's parka for her. Lanko couldn't remember the last time his sister had done that for him—probably around the time he turned thirteen, and became a man. They'd taken up with a pirate about then, Lanko recalled, a fun guy with a hot girl as a first mate. Meiko'd never told Lanko why they'd left. Too bad—life as a pirate was fun, what with the pillaging and all. And First Mate Heitun had been teaching Lanko how to snap a person's neck barehanded. Fun stuff!

The three-man (technically one-man and two-woman, Lanko thought) team reached the end of the alleyway, and Meiko held up a hand for her companions to stop as she checked around the corner. It led to what Lanko vaguely remembered as being a minor street, mostly homes for fishermen. Meiko pulled her hood up to shield her face from easy view, and held her left hand up in the "follow in five minutes" sign. She disappeared around the edge of a building.

Lanko's eyes wandered to Duyao. She was lightly shivering, and her hood was pulled so far down it might rip if tugged any further. Seeing as she was used to the warmer temperatures of the Fire Nation, it was little surprise she found the North Pole's biting cold hard to bear. Even Lanko and Meiko had been surprised at the temperatures upon their return to the North Pole after over a decade of life in the Earth Kingdom.

Five minutes passed, and Lanko and Duyao exited the alley. The sun was starting to get low in the sky, and Lanko figured it would be maybe two hours before it set altogether. Two hours before the Chief ordered some of his men to start searching the surrounding wastelands for the dead warrior—two hours before the Palace, usually heavily guarded, became more easily accessible.

Outside the alley, hardly anyone was about. Lanko was expecting that—fishermen used every hour of daylight they could to cast their nets, then clean their fish down at the docks with the rest of their families so their wives could sell anything they wouldn't need at the market the next morning. A couple of young children were playing in an open space, supervised by an elderly woman with barely any teeth left. In a niche between the doors to two houses, someone had erected a shrine to the Moon and Ocean Spirits.

Meiko was at the far end of the street, head down to keep from anyone from noticing her. The canal in the middle of the street was serene, reflecting the blue sky above. Lanko noted the moon had risen early, a good omen. Could she be smiling on their mission? Wait, hadn't it been the Moon Spirit to save the Fire Nation Princess in the first place? She was sending mixed signals here…

"Lanko," Duyao stepped a bit closer to him so her words would go unnoticed by the children and old woman, "do you think the Tóngyī Shìjiè will succeed in their goal?"

"Huh?" Lanko's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "What kind of a question is that? Of course we will! We've got a spirit on our side, and most of the world to draw manpower and supplies from. How can we not?"

"Loyalty is a strange thing," Duyao answered. "The people of the world have suffered under hereditary lords and unfair governments, but at least they knew what to expect from those systems. My neighbors used to say that the demon they knew was better than the demon they did not know. I'm worried that the world will not accept the Tóngyī Shìjiè's benevolence."

"Meh. Thinking's not my thing. I'm mostly around for the killing," Lanko chuckled. "Meiko's the one who got us involved with the Tóngyī. She thinks the old system is too corrupt to go on or something. Ask her about it—I just do what I'm told."

"Your sister's minion, then?" Lanko could have sworn he heard amusement in Duyao's voice. That surprised him—this was a girl who could make herself look like an emotionless doll even when freezing. She could be amused? Didn't that imply a sense of humor? Duyao and a sense of humor…his head hurt.

"I'm her little brother," Lanko said, instead of voicing his thoughts. "It's my job to protect her, no matter what. If she wants to get involved in a world-changing revolution, good for her. I'll help, do what she says, kill whoever she wants dead, all that. But I'm not here for the Tóngyī, or their precious ideals, or anything. The only reason I'm here is to keep my big sis safe."

"You're a very dedicated sibling," Duyao noted. "Is there a reason for that?"

"None of your business if there is, none of your business if there isn't," Lanko grumbled. "It's always been me and her, on our lonesome, for as long as I can remember. She's spent most of her life looking out for me, doing what I want. Now she's found something she wants to do. I figure I can pay her back for all she's done for me by helping her out with it."

"And what happens when your debt to your sister is paid in full?" Duyao asked.

"It never will be," Lanko muttered. Meiko disappeared around a corner up ahead. He stared at the spot where she had disappeared, wondering if she was waiting for them. His sister, his caring sister, who'd given up so much for him… "I can never pay her back for everything she's done for me."

* * *

Li smiled nervously at the Nations sitting around a table in the middle of the conference room, receiving one in return from Israel. Most of the Middle Eastern Nations appeared to be young men, dressed in suits and with pieces of fabric wrapped around their heads. They looked dignified, with their hands clasped in front of them and their clothing impeccable. Several had scars on their hands or faces, mostly old, pale white ones that were difficult to spot at first.

"Thanks for bringing it! You're sure it didn't get jostled around too much?" America had taken the box from Li, and was inspecting it critically.

"Yes, I'm sure," Li answered. "Though I don't see why you're so concerned about an old toy—"

"Fond memories," America interrupted. "From back in my colony days, before I declared independence from England. He gets so pissed off when I bring that up…anyways, thanks for bringing it. Wanna grab a snack? I brought some cookies to munch on during the meeting, in case Iraq starts yelling at me about all the soldiers I have in his home." One of the men, with a horizontal scar on the outward corner of his left eye, scowled at America. Li assumed he was Iraq.

"We _also_ have to discuss the price of oil," a Nation seated to Iraq's right called. America winced.

"Is the price of oil a bad thing?" Li hazarded.

"Er. It's going up," America confessed. "And China's needing more and more of it, so that's not helping things…my economy's really been suffering lately from the rising prices. I've been trying to convince these guys to sell me more oil, but they're being difficult about it. No worries, though! I'm the hero!"

"You're making it difficult for yourself," a woman Nation snapped. She had her hair completely covered, and was wearing some sort of black dress-thingy that covered most of her body. Li would have to ask her driver about it on the way to the airport—other people had been wearing it outside, but Li didn't know why, or what the garment was called.

"So, cookie?" America placed the box next to an open suitcase, and pulled out a plastic baggie of sugar cookies. Li shook her head no. "Okay. Come on, I'll walk you out to the car. Guys, don't start without me, okay?"

"As if we could," one of the men muttered under his breath as America walked Li to the door. Except for Israel, the Middle Eastern Nations glared at America and Li. Li shivered. She couldn't wait to go home to Vienna…

The doors of the conference room opened slightly, and Li heard something rattling around. A small black canister rolled through the door, and started to hiss.

What…?

Behind Li and America, chairs fell over as the Middle Eastern Nations rose to their feet in alarm. America stepped backwards in surprise, yelping as he stepped on a glass of water that had fallen off the table and rolled over. Several of the Middle Eastern Nations started to make towards the door, but they were hampered by fallen chairs or the table itself.

Li had a moment of shock, then acted. She darted forward, scooped up the canister, and tossed it back through the open door. Several people outside shouted, and one of the male Middle Eastern Nations reached the door in time to slam it shut. There was a loud banging noise, and a hole appeared in the door between Li and the Nation. Without thinking, Li rammed into him sideways, knocking him out of the way, as another hole appeared where his stomach would have been.

"Saudi Arabia!" Someone shouted. Li glanced up, distracted, and in that time someone on the other side of the door slammed it open and hit Li in the head. She fell backwards onto her rear, dizzy, hearing a few more bangs. Something painful hit her leg, and the area started to get wet…blood? Had she been cut with something?

"Israel, grab her!" America shouted, regaining his footing and rushing forward. Li blinked, trying to clear her tilting vision, seeing the blond Nation meet a man in a janitor's uniform at the door. The janitor had some sort of metal contraption in his hands, and was pointing a thin part of it at America. Saudi Arabia had gotten off the floor, and charged a second janitor coming in, knocking him down and starting to wrestle away the man's metal thing.

Hands grabbed Li, and she yelped in surprise. "Calm down!" Israel told her, pulling her over to one wall. "It's an attack. You've been hit. Stay out of the way! We'll deal with it!" Then she hurried to help America, who was grappling with his attacker for the metal contraption.

"This is supposed to be a secret meeting," the man from Iraq's right complained.

"Come on, Iran. Since when have we ever kept anything secret?" Iraq snorted. "This sort of thing has been happening a lot lately."

"Still," Iran persisted. He picked up a chair and threw it at a third janitor, catching him in the legs. Two other male Middle Eastern Nations pounced on the man, and pinnedg him down. One grabbed the cloth wrapping off the other's head and started using it to hogtie the janitor. His comrade started to protest, but when the janitor started screaming the bare-headed one grabbed his friend's headcloth and used it as a gag.

The other Middle Eastern Nations picked up whatever improvised weaponry they could find and charged. More janitors ran in, only to be hit with chairs, glasses, pitchers of cold water, and effectively-thrown pencils.

Saudi Arabia managed to knock out his opponent, and seized the metal contraption the man was clinging. Pointing the thin end at a janitor trying to stab one of the female Nations, Saudi Arabia did something with his finger that made the contraption go "bang." His target jerked, something wet starting to well out from a hole in his shirt, and the man fell, knife still in his hand. Said knife was picked up by the woman intended to be its target, who then launched herself at another janitor with a savage cry.

Li felt herself start to smile, despite the pain in her head. The Nations here could really fight.

Something in the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she turned her head quickly. That was a mistake—the pain flared up, and it was all Li could do not to scream. She gritted her teeth and tried to find what had caught her attention. Everything seemed normal…no, there! A panel in the wall inched outwards, and a hand crept out. The panel was maybe two feet by three feet, just big enough for someone to slip through.

A man in a dark green outfit poked his head out, and focused his attention on the Nations. The Nations were preoccupied with the janitors, who were much better at fighting than an ordinary cleaning crew. Li saw the man pull out a metal contraption and start to aim it at America's back…

* * *

**Li: And that's the chapter. Please review to tell Karen what you think, and be understanding if it takes a little while for her to get back to you-a life is time-consuming, and she sort-of has one. It mostly involves sleeping at strange hours. But yes, review and tell Karen what you think!**


	45. Kidnapped

**Me: Gah! I meant to post this earlier in the day, but I fell asleep, and then had class, and aaah! So sorry it's later in the day than it should have been!**

**Li: Karen does not own Avatar or Hetalia, and is hopefully going to be able to post same day next week. If not, she would like me to apologize in advance, as there is a lot she has to get done for school now and sleep is a sad necessity.**

**Me: Stupid sleep. Why do I need you?**

**Li: Because without sleep you will die.**

**Me: ...Oh yeah...**

* * *

Li stared at the man who had come out of a secret passage in the wall, wondering what she should do. America was completely unaware of the gun being pointed at his back, and the Middle East Nations were too busy to take notice. Nobody else was in the room: Li was only there because she had been supposed to deliver a package to America, the toy soldier she accidentally swept into her suitcase when she was staying in New York.

The man hadn't noticed Li yet, or if he had, he was dismissing her thanks to the obvious wound in her leg. Li's head was swimming, thanks to someone opening the conference room's double doors and whacking her in the temple. She'd had to be dragged away from the doors by Israel, who was working with America to subdue one of the people attacking the Nations. It seemed they had masqueraded as janitors to get access: Li was willing to bet some of them had been pretending for a long time, just for this opportunity to appear.

But she had to focus! America was in danger. Li had to do something! Anything!

Her leg throbbed, and Li gritted her teeth as she finally realized what she could do. Grunting in pain, she pushed herself up and leaned heavily against the wall, trying to get her bearings. She tentatively put her uninjured leg forward, and shifted her weight onto it—so far, so good. Then she stretched out her injured leg, eyes fixed on the man and his weapon, and put her weight down…

"Gngh!" Li nearly collapsed, but caught herself in time. She quickly lunged forward onto her good foot and sucked in a breath. All right, so she had to be fast. It looked like the man aiming at America was getting ready to shoot, so she couldn't afford to wait any longer. Judging the distance to the man to be roughly ten feet, Li took in a deep breath and started forward.

Agni, her leg hurt! What had those metal contraptions done? It felt like something small and painful was lodged in her leg, jostling and hurting her with every twitch of her muscles. Adrenaline started to flow, helping a little, and Li was getting closer to the man, who still hadn't noticed her—maybe the part of the paneling that swung out was partially blocking her from his view? Could he be so intent on his target he wasn't interested in anything else?

And she was there! Li put all of her weight on her good leg and threw herself into the panel, knocking the man to the side. His weapon went off, and a Middle East Nation still at the conference table looked to see where the noise had come from.

"They've got another man in the back!" she yelled. America looked around in surprise, and the man he was fighting with punched him in the abdomen. With little other choice, America turned back to deal with the current, closer threat, rather than taking his chances to deal with the farther one.

Li felt the man trying to push the panel open all the way, and leaned against it. She braced herself on her good leg and put all her weight into the panel, but the man was stronger and forced the panel back far enough for him to get out. He tried to bring his weapon up again, but Li grabbed his arm and dragged it down.

"دعونا نذهب!" The man shouted. Instead of responding, Li bit him on the arm. His sleeve was in the way, but he growled in pain and tried to shake her off. Being shook hurt Li's head even more, rattling her brain around inside her skull, and she started to see gray around the edges of her vision.

Someone, or maybe several someones, was shouting. Things started to blur, and Li squinted. The arm in her mouth was wrenched away, and she let it go. She had an idea—recalling what she had learned about pressure points, she pressed her pointer and middle fingers together, then drove them into her opponent's stomach with as much force as she could muster. Sadly, Li couldn't muster much force. Her body was starting to feel heavy, and the gray was creeping inwards.

It seemed her attack hadn't done much to the man—his face was twisted into a pained grimace, but he seemed fine. Li watched dazedly as he raised his weapon over his head, brought it down, and…

Darkness.

* * *

When the can of gas rolled through the door and started to hiss, America's first thought was, Really? They have to do this now? He'd stepped backwards, and a glass of water chose that very moment to roll under his foot. He lost his balance, and fell backwards.

Li had frozen, staring at the canister, and for a second America thought he would have to shove her out of the way so he could get at the thing. It was probably some sort of knockout gas, intended to put everyone in the conference room to sleep, but he couldn't be sure. What if it exploded? Austria would be furious if America allowed one of Austria's maids to be blown up!

But before America could get to his feet, Li had rushed forwards, grabbed the canister, and threw it back out the door. A man outside the door yelled, "Throw it out the window! Hurry!" in Arabic, while a woman screamed and two other men yelled at her to be quiet. Saudi Arabia ran past America, jumping over a chair on the ground, and slammed the door shut.

America scrabbled to get to his feet, and felt someone's hands grab him near the armpits and pull him up. He half-turned to see who it was, and saw Israel's anxious face. "Thanks," he grinned at her. She opened her mouth to say something, probably about him learning to be more aware of his surroundings, when they heard a gunshot.

Some of the Middle Eastern Nations had gained their bearings and begun to run towards the door at that point. Iran and Iraq helped Kuwait and Afghanistan off the floor before heading for the door. Li pushed Saudi Arabia out of the way of a bullet, leaving the door completely free. It swung open, hitting Li in the head, and America lunged at the first man he saw.

Janitors? Really? He thought as he saw what the man was wearing. They had to pass as janitors? The man's gun went off, pointing at Li, and America saw a hole appear in her jeans. "Israel, grab her!" America shouted to the woman a few feet behind him. She nodded quickly, and America turned his full attention to the attackers.

He grabbed the first man's gun, and flung it to one side. Another attacker—could they be terrorists?—entered, but Saudi Arabia had gotten off the floor and flung himself at the second man. Both attackers started guiding their opponents away from the door, making room for others to come in.

A chair flew by America's ear, hitting a man in the legs, which Oman and Yemen took as a sign to pounce. Oman grabbed his twin's headcloth to tie the attacker up, and Yemen retaliated by turning Oman's headcloth into a makeshift gag. America still couldn't believe all the male Middle Eastern Nations had taken his dare to wear headcloths to the meeting. Looked like drinks really were on him tonight…if they got drinks at all.

More attackers, all dressed as janitors, were streaming into the room through the double doors. Israel appeared and tackled America's opponent from behind, putting him in a bear hug and giving America the chance to wrench away the man's gun. The world superpower snapped the weapon in half casually, in a show of heroic strenght, and delivered a light blow to the fake janitor's stomach. He gagged, and a pencil flew past America's neck (almost nicked it, actually) to lodge itself in the man's eye.

"Nice shot," America called over his shoulder to Pakistan.

"Shut up and keep them from shooting us!" She snapped. America grinned and turned back to the fight. Israel released the dead man, and ducked to avoid a man with a shotgun.

"Die!" The shotgun-wielding fake janitor screamed. America grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back, allowing Israel to deliver a strong blow to the man's sternum. Syria fell backwards against America, dodging a knife thrust, sending both Nations off balance. Syria's attacker was taken down by a gunshot from Saudi Arabia, who had gotten his hands on a weapon, and she crouched to pick up the short blade before launching at another janitor with a savage cry. Hm. Maybe America should look into a weapon. He was starting to regret snapping that gun in half.

How many opponents were left? Pakistan, Lebanon, Kuwait, and Turkmenistan were all by the conference table, throwing pencils and staplers at the attackers with deadly precision. Iran and Iraq had grabbed chairs, and were working together with Bahrain and Qatar to subdue two janitors. Oman and Yemen were providing support for Saudi Arabia, using knives filched from the first man they subdued to stab anyone getting close. A bunch of Stan Nations (their names all ended in –stan, so America figured it was okay to refer to them as the Stan Nations) were dragging dead, wounded, and otherwise incapacitated enemies out of the way so the other Nations could deal with the rest more easily.

Maybe fifteen already down, and about that same number left to take out. America glanced around and found a chair just behind him, wrenched off one of its legs, and clubbed Israel's enemy over the head.

"See if he has any knives," America suggested to his friend. She knelt and patted the janitor down, uncovering two and offering America one. He shook his head, hefting the makeshift club meaningfully as he did, and jerked his head towards the door. "Let's help the others."

America's superstrength was very, very helpful indeed when you were being attacked. He was careful not to deliver any killing blows, and tried to aim for the limbs—a broken leg would keep someone from running off, and broken arms made it hard to shoot or stab people. Some part of him registered that the pencils had stopped flying through the air, but he was too focused on staying out of the way of the attackers' bullets.

Oman was hit in the stomach, and his twin literally carried him out of the way, calling for Syria to help with first aid. Three or four Stans—America wasn't sure if the blood on Tajikistan was from Kyrgyzstan or not—got hit too, reducing the number of Nations still in the action. The Nations' numbers were starting to go down. Not good.

Israel—where was she? America risked a glance around, and was rewarded with the sight of Israel cutting a fake janitor on the cheek with one of her knives. She wove between the man's attacks and feinted a strike at his jaw, using the movement to mask her real attempt on his hand. Her opponent wasn't fooled, and she dodged a kick just in time. Satisfied she would be all right on her own, America cracked his club against a man about to stab Saudi Arabia in the back.

Hm. America was laughing. When had he started? And…why did he care, again?

"America!" Someone shouted—Lebanon? America delivered a crippling blow to a man's back and turned around to see what was going on. Lebanon and Kuwait were waving their arms frantically, jerking their heads towards a piece of paneling in the wall that had swung open. Pakistan had crawled partially inside, with Turkmenistan holding her by the waist.

"What?" America hollered, glancing around to make sure nobody was attacking him. It looked like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar were dealing with the last two attackers standing—Iran and Iraq were examining the wounds their fellow Nations had sustained. Israel had sat down with her back against a wall, panting heavily. Assured things would be fine without him, America navigated through the wreck of the conference room to where the four female Nations were standing. Clearly they were more in need of a hero than the male Nations.

"There was another man back here!" Kuwait pointed to the secret passage. America nodded—he had seen the guy, but had needed to deal with more immediate threats. Li had managed to intervene, and he'd thought some of the Nations still at the conference table would go help her. "That girl who brought you the package saw him, and they fought. The man hit her over the head. He saw we were looking at him, so he dragged her into the panel and closed it behind him. It was locked, but Pakistan was able to force it open."

"What? Li was kidnapped?" America yelped. Austria was going to kill him! "Let's go after her!" He tried to dive in, but Pakistan kicked him in the neck, forcing him to recoil back in pain. "What was that for?"

"It won't do any good," Pakistan informed him as she crawled out. She had a flashlight in one hand, which she switched off as soon as she was clear of the small opening. "There's an exit about twenty feet down, and I'm pretty sure it leads to the back wall of the building. Whoever that man was, he probably had an escape vehicle waiting for him there. He'll ditch the vehicle, get into another one, maybe repeat the process a couple times, and be gone long before we can organize a proper search."

"But she's Austria's maid!" America wailed, clutching his head in alarm. "She only came because she had to bring me something!" Oh, why, why had he felt it so important to get that toy back as soon as possible? He could have gone without it until the next meeting with Austria! But no, he was so paranoid England would find out America had kept the toy soldiers from his colony days, the ones England had made personally, and America had panicked. How embarrassing would it be for him if England knew? Had America really called Li here, to dangerous lands, so he could avoid embarrassment?

"In all fairness, if she wasn't here things might not have gone so well," Turkmenistan muttered. The Arabic Nation looked up and saw Lebanon rolling her eyes. "It's true! Her and America were the only ones close to the door when that gas canister rolled in, and America fell over because of his own stupidity. Without that girl, we would all have been unconscious in minutes."

America winced at the mention of him falling over by, but let it slide. He had more important things to worry about…like Austria finding out Li had been captured by terrorists. Nations were very protective of their citizens, and though Li wasn't technically affiliated with Austria by anything other than work, Austria had made it clear to America that the girl was _Austria's_ responsibility and would be returned to him in one piece—or else. It was the "or else" that had America worried. Austria's tone when saying it was very scary.

"We should call our bosses, tell them what happened," Pakistan suggested. "They'll want to investigate how news of this meeting got out—nobody but us, our bosses, and a few select individuals were to know of it."

"Yes, but first we should help the boys," Lebanon sighed and glanced at the group of Nations clustered around the injured Oman, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. Iran and Iraq seemed to be applying first aid to the more serious wounds, and directing Bahrain and Yemen in how to deal with minor ones.

"_First_, we should try to stop them!" America insisted, pulling out a cellphone. "I'll call the police, and tell them to set up a perimeter. One of you should call the guards for this building, tell them what happened, and have them start sweeping the building for more terrorists."

"The latter idea is good, but the first one won't do much," Pakistan argued. "A good getaway vehicle will be fast, and if this was a terrorist attack you can bet our attackers know ways around blockades. I think we should clean the building, tend the wounded, and call our bosses. They'll be able to put a spin on this that the public won't panic over, and we can start a search for the girl under the guise of a political kidnapping."

"I'd say it's obvious that us Nations were the targets," Kuwait piped up. "When the terrorists learn they only managed to kidnap a human, the girl could be killed."

"Or ransomed," Turkmenistan mused. "She was kidnapped from a room filled with Nations, and she's working as a maid for Austria. They might try using her as leverage. And it's not like we can just ignore a human in danger…"

"Are you kidding me? Didn't you hear her talk? She was American!" Lebanon snapped. "Let her country deal with her. I don't care how she wound up in Russia, it's obvious from her accent where she's from."

"No, she's not American," Pakistan interrupted. "India and I were at a diplomatic function a week ago, and he said that he heard from Prussia that the girl was from some isolated island near Asia. If she speaks with an American accent, that's probably because she learned English from an American. Accents are really unreliable to use to determine where someone's from."

"Are you guys gonna do anything other than talk?" America demanded. He flipped his cellphone open and hit speed-dial #1—President Obama. Pressing the phone to his ear, he tried to block out all other noise and focus on the dial tone.

"President Obama's personal line," a woman answered. "I'm sorry, the president is not available at the moment. Can I take a message?"

"Ann? It's America," America spoke as quickly as he could. "I'm at the conference in Tehran. We were attacked by a group of men pretending to be janitors. Several Nations are wounded. Tell Barry what happened, and get someone over here to set up blockades. A human girl was kidnapped."

"What? Hold on, let me get that straight. An attack?" Ann sounded worried, and America could just imagine the forty-year-old woman biting her lip as she spoke. "Why was a human girl there?"

"She was delivering a…package for me," America explained. "When the attack started, she was shot in the leg. I'll tell you everything later, just get someone on it!"

"Right away," Ann promised. "As soon as the president is finished with his meeting I'll inform him of the situation. Do your best to tend to the wounded until I, someone else from the government, or a Middle Eastern official contacts you."

"Got it," America affirmed, and heard Ann start to talk to someone else as she shut the President of America's personal cell phone.

"Hand me your cell phone," Lebanon commanded as America flipped it shut. "I didn't bring mine today. My boss will want to hear about this."

"I don't even own a cell phone," Turkmenistan complained. "Shouldn't you let me call my boss first?"

"Why don't you both use landlines? There are three over on that wall," Pakistan jerked her head towards one wall. "I've got a cell phone, at least."

"I'm going to go help Iran and Iraq," Kuwait glanced over at the group of Nations gathered around their wounded. "I know a bit about field medicine, and they could probably use some help."

"Here, you can use my phone," America offered Turkmenistan the cellphone. "Lebanon, you and Pakistan use the landlines. I've got to talk to Israel."

"Yeah, because clearly she's the only person who deserves your consideration," Lebanon muttered. America frowned and turned to ask what she meant by that, but she was already walking away from him.

Israel—he needed to talk to Israel. Wasn't she over—yes, there she was, leaning against the wall near the Nations tending the wounded. She didn't look injured, but you couldn't be sure just after a fight. The adrenaline rush that helped you focus and fight could later mask injuries that were serious if left untreated. And Israel was getting very good at ignoring pain…

She started as soon as America's hand touched her shoulder, and brought her knife up almost too fast for America to track. Once she saw who it was, she stopped, her expression sheepish.

"You okay?" America asked carefully. He saw Israel's mouth twitch up on the right side, before she sighed and buried her face in her hands.

"Yeah. Sure," she answered. "Be better if I knew who these guys are, but they're all unconscious or too heavily wounded to answer questions."

"I called my government," America informed her. "They'll start straightening things out."

"Yes, because they always do," Israel rolled her eyes.

"Exactly!" America beamed, glad she understood. His mood instantly took a turn up. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"Nope," Israel shook her head. "Not badly, at least. I know I have a few scratches, but I'm always getting those. Remind me to ask someone for a Band-Aid later."

"Will do!" America grinned.

"Hey, where's that human girl who brought you the package?" Israel looked up, and started scanning the room for Li. "She did good. Has she left?"

"No," America felt his good mood from a moment ago vanish. "She was kidnapped. Lebanon, Pakistan, Kuwait, and Turkmenistan saw her being dragged into a secret tunnel behind a panel in the back wall. By the time they opened it, it was empty. They think Li's going to be ransomed."

"What?" Israel's eyes flew wide open. "That—we have to go after them! We can't let a normal human get hurt! Which way did this guy go? If we hurry, we can—"

"It was ten minutes or more ago when he headed off," America interrupted. "I've got people working on a blockade, and the girls are calling their bosses. Did you bring your cellphone?"

"Y-yes…" Israel reached into a pocket and pulled out an iPhone. "From my birthday…" She smiled weakly at America, and he felt proud that she was using his latest present to her.

"Call your boss, then," America instructed. "Tell him as much as you can in one minute, promise to brief him on everything later, and let him know that there's been a kidnapping. It's possible the attackers think Li's a Nation, since she was in the room with us and all. If that's the case…"

"She'll be in trouble when they realize she isn't," Israel nodded. "Unless she can fool them long enough for us to find her."

"I hope she can," America sighed. "But she doesn't know anything about Nations other than her own, and terrorists won't buy her story of being raised in a small, isolated place they've never heard of before."

"She talks like an American," Israel agreed. "They probably already know who you are, if they knew who and what they were attacking. Maybe they'll think she's a state of yours?"

"I don't think she even knows the names of my states," America paused, then added, "except for New York. And that only because she visited me in New York City and wanted to know why the city had the same name as the state. Well, no," America frowned, "she might remember the names of several others. We got onto the subject when she didn't know some basic geography in a video game."

"Video game? Why am I not surprised…" Israel mumbled. "Still, if she can't remember…"

"We'll have to start looking for her as soon as possible," America finished. "Or they may just kill her and be done with it."

* * *

The Palace of the Northern Water Tribe was magnificent, by any nation's standards. It wasn't as large as the Earth Kingdom or Fire Nation could boast, nor did it have the feats of architecture the original Air Nomads accomplished with their temples, but it had one thing the other nations could not recreate: it was made entirely of ice. Only the Water Tribes, who resided in the coldest parts of the world, could build with ice and expect to still have homes come high summer (or the endless day that passed for their high summer).

Liandao of the Southern Water Tribe realized this, but wasn't in the mood to appreciate the grandness of the Palace. She was pacing in the entrance hall, waiting for her friend and charge Tribal Princess Jia to stop bickering with her brother so the two could go and have supper with the rest of Team Avatar. The members that weren't sleeping in ponds or on Spirit World journeys, at least.

How long had Liandao been waiting, again? Too long. Dear sharding icicles, Liandao would be worried if she didn't know how stubborn Jia and her brother could be when they were arguing. Put the two together, and you would have to start a war to get them to notice anything else.

Actually, that wasn't quite true. The two of them loved seaweed cookies, and would happily call a truce to devour a plate. But seaweed flour was usually used in bread-making, and bread for the people was more important than sweets for the rich.

So Liandao had no cookies to bribe her friend and friend's brother with, and she was getting impatient with both of them. She could just go to the house without Jia…but she'd promised to pick her up, and ever since arriving at the Northern Water Tribe Liandao had scarcely seen her friend.

Maybe she could do something while she was waiting, though? Liandao spotted one of the Waterbender masters, who was supposed to have supper at the palace with the Chief that night. "Master Yukat," she called to him, "can I have a word?"

"Hm? Master Liandao," Yukat stopped and gave the girl a thin smile. "What brings you to the palace?"

"Jia," Liandao explained. "She was supposed to meet me here a candlemark ago, and I don't know what's taking her so long. You're obviously here to see the Chief," and that might have been flattery on Liandao's part, but it never hurt and often helped, "so when you see him could you ask him to tell Jia that I've gone to the Spirit Oasis for a little while?"

"Gone to the Oasis? But why—oh," understanding flickered across the old master's face, and he nodded. "I will tell the Chief, if I don't see the Princess first."

"Thank you," Liandao smiled gratefully at him and made her way out of the palace. The entrance to the Spirit Oasis was behind the palace, only accessible through a small wooden gate in a wall of ice. It was the wood that told you how important the Oasis was—using it to make a door instead of a boat or canoe, or as firewood, was quite the luxury.

As she reached her hand out to open the gate, Liandao paused. Did she really want to go in? Did she really want to see…?

Yes. Yes, she had come here, and she would sharding well go in. Li _was_ her friend, despite their "arguments" and general lack of civility around each other. Liandao owed it to Li to visit, in case some part of the girl was aware and knew the Waterbender was there.

_All right, so open the door already!_ Liandao chided herself, and reached forward. She undid the latch and pushed the door open, crawled through the narrow hole, and pulled the door shut behind her. A large pool of water stretched before her, with walkways on either side. A ways away, Liandao could see the island of green plants that signaled the boundaries of the most spiritual place in the entire North Pole.

The moment Liandao's foot landed on the grass, she felt like she was in the Fire Nation on the summer solstice. Her parka was discarded near the red tori gate that stood a few feet behind the Oasis proper. Before the gate was the Oasis, a large circle of water with a semicircle of land jutting out to allow supplicants or shamans a place to pray.

Sitting on that semicircle were two people, a man and a woman. Huo and Ru. The Avatar, a brown-haired man with a warrior's parka still on, had his legs folded and knuckles touching before his body in the proper meditative posture Xing had instructed him in. Ru was in a more relaxed position, back slightly hunched and hands resting in her lap.

What had possessed them to go on a spirit journey? Liandao mused over the question as she settled herself down between the two, hands running through the grass. Both had looks of intense concentration on their faces, brows drawn together and mouths frowning slightly, as if there was a puzzling problem to be worked out. Were they safe, in the Spirit World? Could Liandao do anything to help them from here? If she touched them, would they wake up?

Liandao sighed. "A note would have been nice…" she muttered, then almost laughed. Here she was, sitting in a tropical oasis at the North Pole, talking to people who were on a spirit journey. They couldn't hear her! Why bother saying anything aloud? "I suppose because it feels better to talk to someone," Liandao decided.

Oh, she knew what Huo would be doing if he were actually here: he'd be giving her a weird look and insinuating she was going crazy. "But I'm not going crazy, I'm just lonely," Liandao informed his body. Hm—if he wasn't using it, was it the same as him being dead? His body was there, but he wasn't using it…that was one way people described corpses, right? "I really hope your body isn't a corpse," Liandao confessed to her friend. "We'd have to get rid. Can't have corpses cluttering up a spiritual place, now can we? Yes, yes, I'm aware I'm talking to myself. It's just that I know exactly what you'll say, so I can have a whole conversation with you without you actually being here.

"And I know you're amused, Ru!" Liandao turned to the black-haired woman, a grin twitching at her lips. "Don't deny it. Let those blood-red lips turn up for once! Actually, I've always thought your lips were weird. Why are they so red? Li tried convincing me it's because you drink blood, but I know she was lying. So what gives?"

There was no answer. Not that Liandao was expecting one, but still.

"Fine, keep your secrets," Liandao waved a hand and chuckled. "You'll just tell me it's how you were born or something later anyways." Liandao's eyes began to wander, and she whispered to herself, "I can always make Li tell me the truth…later…"

Li. Lying in the Spirit Oasis, head pointed towards the tori gate and feet pointing towards the wall, the Fire Nation Princess was completely submerged in the water of the Spirit Oasis. Ming had been able to repair the damage to her neck, which was now completely smooth skin. In the gloom of evening, the setting sun's rays blocked by the glacier on each side and the city to the south, Li looked ashy gray. Her blue anorak was heavy with water, keeping her body lying still on the oasis floor. Tears and holes from Li's fight with Meiko were everywhere on the blue-dyed leather, exposing bits of her arms and legs. Lilypads and water lilies floated around her, her hair fanning out around her face. She looked like a drowning victim, sleeping peacefully under the water until someone fished her out.

Drowning victim…Liandao shivered at the thought. Her people depended on the water for life, but in the arctic regions of the poles drowning was a terrible fate. The icy waters would kill any interloper, as if the Ocean Spirit was insulted that man would venture into the territory of fish. A simple fall through thin ice could mean death, if one wasn't pulled out and dried off soon enough.

No. She shouldn't think about such morbid things, not when her friend lay injured before her. Liandao saw the monochromatic koi fish that lived in the pond, one white and one black, circling each other as they drifted around the oasis. They looked like a yin-yang symbol, with the dots on their heads of their companion's color, revolving around and around in a balanced dance.

On impulse, Liandao reached forward and tapped the surface of the pond with her finger. Ripples spread out from the area, and once they reached the koi fish the two stopped circling to swim over to the center of the disturbance.

"Hello, fishies," Liandao smiled crookedly at them. "Sorry, I don't have any food. Next time I will, if I remember." Was it just her, or were the fish staring at her? They had stopped—fish weren't supposed to stop, Liandao was sure. Didn't fish only stop when they die?

Okay, this was creepy. Liandao stood up and sighed. Hong would probably want to investigate what was taking her so long—she should go and wait in the palace for him or Jia to appear.

As she climbed out of the oasis through the small hole in the wall, Liandao looked back. She hoped that whatever Ru and Huo were doing, they finished it quickly. Not that Liandao would say it out loud, in case it reached certain ears later, but…she was really worried about Li.

That little sparker was getting _such_ a lecture when she woke up…

* * *

**All right, that's the chapter. Hope you enjoyed it, and send me a review with constructive criticism, your opinion, etc. Thank you for reading!**


	46. Voice

**Me: *drags self in by fingernails* Uuuuugh...**

**Li: Don't mind her. She's just a little swamped with schoolwork.**

**Me: Gaaaah...so many writing assignments...so many readings...T.T**

**Li: She does not own Avatar or Hetalia. Please excuse her laxness with regards to the lack of a new chapter last week; she had neither the energy nor the time to post. Also, the character of Israel is mostly the same as the Israel from katzsoa's stories. There are likely to be differences between katzsoa's Israel and Karen's Israel because of differing interpretations of the Nation.**

* * *

The first thing Li was aware of was that her head hurt. She wondered if someone had spiked her last drink with alcohol, but when had she last had a drink? What had she been doing last, period? Something about delivering America a toy…?

Wait, the meeting! The attack! What had happened to the Nations? Were they okay? Li must've been knocked out during the fighting. She should get up, see if she could help with anything, maybe ask someone to check her head just in case…

Ow, okay, no, getting up was a bad idea. Her head started to hurt the moment she lifted it, and Li let it fall back onto the floor with a thud. Sadly, the impact didn't hurt as much as her head already did, and she barely noticed it. Her thoughts started to jumble together, and she struggled to focus on something, anything. She tried concentrating on her senses, sound, smell, touch, hearing, but the information collected by her body lumped together in her head and refused to be interpreted.

Maybe she should just sleep…no! Sleep was bad, when your head hurt like this. Li was sure of that, even if she couldn't finger why that was, or where she had heard it. Her mind slipped into confusion again, for how long she couldn't be sure, until suddenly a light turned on and hit her closed eyes.

Li's first instinct was to curl up in pain, but she quickly learned that any movement jarring her head would hurt worse than the light, and that her leg didn't enjoy activity either. She whimpered and tried to cover her face with her arms, but discovered—much to her surprise—that her arms were tied above her head. They were aching, but the greater pain of her head had kept her from noticing until then.

Her heart momentarily stopped as Li realized she was being held a prisoner. But why? What had she done wrong? Did the Nations suspect her of something? Wait…during the attack…

A prisoner of the attackers? Her stomach soured at the thought. Could she escape? If she used her Firebending, probably…but if she used her Firebending, the Nations might learn about it, and what then? How could she Firebend her way out without any witnesses? Kill everyone…? No, that was out before she could seriously consider it. In her current state, it was unlikely she could fight off even half the number of men who had attacked the Nations.

Dear Pele, her head hurt…

A hand touched Li's shoulder, and she squeaked. Water started dripping on her, and a wet rag started to clean off her face. Someone made shushing noises, and Li tried to relax—tension would only make it harder to think clearly. The person cleaning her face was making more noises, and though it hurt her head Li didn't want them to stop—it told Li she was being tended to, not kept alive. And yes, there was a difference between the two. Being kept alive meant someone was going to use her for something, and could care less about her after that: being tended to meant someone cared about keeping her healthy, for now at least.

Was it a woman tending to her? Li thought it was: the voice sounded feminine, not that Li was very good at telling what gender a person was just from their voice. She did think it more likely that the person cleaning her face was a woman, simply because women were usually the ones sent to do such things for a captive.

All right, it was probably a woman. Her head still hurt. If only she had some of those pills Hungary had given her when she had that hangover…aspirin, weren't they called? Even a whole bottle of those might not be enough, her head hurt so much. At least her mind was starting to clear: she could think, and her brain was filtering out everything around her.

Li started to take stock of her surroundings. She was lying on a bed, one that smelled funny, with rough sheets and no pillow. Her wrists were tied to metal bars with some sort of rope, and the rough material was chafing her skin. There might be welts on her wrists once the rope was removed. Her leg was starting to hurt worse, and Li vaguely recalled something striking it during the fight. The woman cleaning her face was humming now, some tune Li didn't know. Some of the water from the rag trickled onto the back of Li's neck, making her shiver.

Her head hurt whenever she tried to move it. Li didn't think she could do anything until her head felt better…

* * *

America paced the floor of the hospital waiting room, occasionally glancing at the other Nations waiting with him. Almost half of the Middle Eastern Nations had needed some form of medical care after the UN security forces arrived, on the insistence of their bosses, and half those Nations had to have proper hospital treatment. Everyone else had gone to wait for the doctors' verdicts: it wasn't like anyone was about to die, but their injuries would affect world affairs for a while.

A nurse came out of the ER, and the Nations looked up hopefully. She walked to the reception desk, and the Nations turned back to whatever they had been doing. Israel had managed to get a book from somewhere, and was alternately staring at the pages and staring into blank space.

Saudi Arabia started to tap his fingers on the armrest of his chair, and America glared at him in annoyance. The other Nation didn't seem to notice—his gaze was fixed on the ER doors, like he was expecting news any second. Yemen, on Saudi Arabia's right, was fidgeting in anxiety. His twin had been rushed to surgery, and while Nations usually healed faster than normal humans…well, Yemen was worried.

One of America's fingers rose to finger a bandage on his arm. He hadn't even realized he was cut until someone pointed it out to him, and it began screaming at him for attention. It wasn't enough to warrant more than a strip of gauze and some medical tape, so after a quick treatment at the meeting room America had insisted the medics turn their attention to the more heavily wounded Oman and four of the Stan Nations.

"Would you stop that already?" Pakistan hissed at Saudi Arabia. He blinked in bewilderment, and looked at his hand like it was some alien appendage. Pakistan harrumphed and crossed her arms. She gritted her teeth, maybe keeping from yelling at anyone else, America didn't know. He never enjoyed "reading the atmosphere"—it was usually depressing. America preferred life to be upbeat and happy.

He stopped his pacing and glanced at the ER door, wondering how the Nations in there were faring. Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan were in surgery, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were getting splints put on broken limbs, Bahrain needed stitches for a nasty cut, Israel was getting bandages for the numerous lacerations on her hands, Qatar had been hit in the stomach with the butt of the last attacker's rifle and had been ordered by his boss to get it examined…

The ER door opened, and a doctor walked out. All the Nations straightened automatically as they realized he was walking towards them, and Yemen got to his feet quickly. America stepped forward too, but Pakistan elbowed him back as she rushed forward.

"How are they? How are our friends?" the female Nation cried, clasping her hands in front of her. She had put on a chador, a full-body veil that left her face uncovered, out of respect for the religious norms in Iran's home. It looked strange, since she usually wore only a headscarf.

"Your friends will be fine, ma'am," the doctor assured her. "We've moved Mr. Amit al-Muhamad to ICU for monitoring, in case the gunshot wound in his stomach becomes infected, but he seems to be recovering at a remarkable rate. The others had less serious injuries, and are recovering as well." Yemen breathed a sigh of relief at hearing the good news-hearing Oman referred to by his human name was always strange, but at least he was alive.

"Thank you," Pakistan smiled at the man. "Might I go in to see—"

"Nadira," Afghanistan put a hand on her shoulder, using Pakistan's human first name. "Perhaps Yasser should be the first to visit the others? Are they all in the same room, like we requested?" The last sentence was directed to the doctor, who nodded. Yemen stepped forward hesitantly.

"So…may I go see my brother, then?" He asked nervously.

"You're Mr. Yasser? Yes, you may," the doctor smiled at the Nation and beckoned. "Follow me. Your brother's been asking for you." Yemen followed the man eagerly, disappearing through a pair of doors across the room.

"So everyone's okay," Kuwait sighed in relief. "That's wonderful! We should celebrate…does anyone want to go out to eat tonight?"

"Um, no," America shot her offer down. "There's kinda something you're all forgetting about, isn't there?"

"You mean the human girl?" Iran snorted. "She'll get ransomed soon enough, or my government will find her. I've got men working on the attack already. They texted three hours ago that they believe it was an al-Qaida operation."

"Yeah, they probably thought we were a bunch of important diplomats," Iraq added. "The survivors are being interrogated right now. We'll know more about their objective once that's done."

"And in the meantime, everyone's okay, and nobody's home will be suffering any severe damage," Afghanistan summed up. "So we should thank Allah for our blessings and pray that we can work to prevent any more attacks like this. My boss has told me he wants to up my security, for starters, because of what happened."

"Fine, be like that," America crossed his arms. "But a real hero doesn't ignore a damsel in distress."

"Thank Allah none of us are real heroes, then," Syria countered.

"Works for me!" America snapped. "I'll get some of the Europeans to help me, and Canada, and Israel of course, because—"

"Oh, yes, because you and Israel are just _such _good friends," Afghanistan rolled his eyes. "We all know how much you and the rest of the UN favor her. _She_ gets all the good help, but _we _just get you kicking our doors down and messing up our homes while you search for terrorists and steal our oil! Has it occurred to you that we can't all become little mini-Americas just because you march in and say so? Look at all the damage you've done to Iraq!"

"Hey, if you're implying something—" Iraq began hotly, but his brother cut him off.

"He's talking about your house, not your head, idiot," Iran rolled his eyes. "Why do you have to think every comment about you is an insult?"

"Excuse me for being tired of everyone at America's house thinking I'm a terrorist," Iraq muttered. "There are just a few people hiding out at my place that are responsible for all that, but because it's _my_ house, I'm the one that gets blamed for all of it!"

"You're not the only one," Afghanistan reminded him. "I swear, there are times when I almost believe America thinks I'm the freaking al-Qaida personification! Never mind that al-Qaida is just a radical group, and in no way a country…"

"Prussia was the Teutonic Knights before he became a country," Lebanon piped up. "And I think I heard Hungary mention once that before that, he was the Order of St. Maria, or something like that. So, technically, it _should_ be possible for an organization to be personified."

"Who asked your opinion?" Pakistan placed her hands on her hips.

"Everyone, I think we should calm down," Saudi Arabia suggested. He was ignored.

"Nobody asked, but I thought it was a fact that should be pointed out," Lebanon glared at Pakistan.

"Oh, so you're getting looked down on too, boo-hoo!" Iraq rolled his eyes at Afghanistan. "At least you don't have a stupid little girl living nearby gloating all the time because America and the Europeans kept you from conquering her and getting a seaport!"

"No, I've got worse! I have Pakistan next door, moaning and griping about every little thing she doesn't like!" Afghanistan threw up his arms in exasperation. "You try spending a few days around her, see how you feel about Kuwait then!"

"You all _do_ realize that this is exactly what lets those terrorists hide out in our homes in the first place, right?" Saudi Arabia tried to talk over his fellow Nations. None of them paid him any attention.

"Pardon me for trying to help you guys when I see you're in trouble," America scowled at the other Nations. "I make a few honest mistakes, and what do you do? Start ranting about how I'm destroying the world!"

"Well, maybe if you could stop acting like such a fool all the time—" Pakistan said as snidely as she could.

"I try to be upbeat! I try to be positive! I hope it'll spread!" America shot back. "Pardon me for hoping I can make the world a better place!"

"It's not so much that you try to make everyone as happy as you, as it is that you're too stupid to do it right," Syria snorted.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and turned to stare at Saudi Arabia. The Middle Eastern Nation was gritting his teeth in anger, his fists clenched and shaking. Rage radiated off his skin like the desert's heat at noon.

"Um…sir…?" Kuwait began hesitantly.

"Do. Not. Talk." Saudi Arabia hissed at her. She fell silent, eyes wide. Her skin, normally tan, had taken on the color of milky coffee. Saudi Arabia looked around at the gathered Nations, making several of the smaller ones flinch. His brown eyes, often compared to the color of rich dirt, clearly showed his anger. The Nation folded his arms and stretched his spine as straight as it would go, emphasizing his height, which was superior to the other Nations.

The largest of the Middle Eastern Nations, in terms of land at least, made sure nobody was about to interrupt him before speaking again. "You are all acting like children," he informed them. America flashed to a memory of England lecturing him after America had broken a plate. Saudi Arabia looked a lot like England had then, right down to the stance and the crossed arms.

"But—" Pakistan started to speak, only to be cut off as Saudi Arabia turned to look at her. He didn't say anything—he just looked. That was all he needed to do to make his fellow Nation stop talking.

"Has it occurred to you," Saudi Arabia spoke, "that perhaps this is why terrorists are able to hide out in our houses so easily? That maybe all the bickering and infighting is letting others take advantage of us and our people? Afghanistan, you keep complaining about Pakistan, but everyone thinks you're practically a terrorist yourself! Iraq, it's the same for you, with your constant whining about Kuwait! Iran, America thought you were trying to make nuclear weapons so you could attack him—because you kept on badmouthing him after that fight you had at the end of the eighties."

"Um, a bunch of his students seized my embassy," America spoke up. "I think it was a little more than a fight…"

"Shut up." America shut up.

"All of you seem to insist on acting like children," Saudi Arabia continued, "and it's only hurting your positions. Iraq, America's trying to help you out, even if he's being an idiot about it. Don't talk, America, you won't help any. Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, I know you're upset about Israel, but she's not to blame for something that the UN thought up. Maybe the other Nations are being unfair and favoring her over the rest of us, but we can't do anything about that by attacking her, can we?

"Nor are we going to get anything done if we continue to argue with each other. If anything, arguing is making our situation worse—while we blame each other for what's going on, the people who are really responsible, the terrorists and radical factions that are doing the bombings and threats, are having a field day! Do you really want to keep blaming each other for what's been happening? Or do you want to stop being idiots and do something about it?"

Everyone was silent. America frowned as he reviewed what Saudi Arabia had just said. Clearly America himself was free of blame—the hero never screwed up, after all—but it was possible that all the infighting amongst the Middle East _was_ making it easier for the terrorists. And okay, maybe the Nations themselves weren't as much to blame as he always found himself thinking they were…

The moment was ruined by a pair of doors near the nurse's station opening. Yemen walked out, still wearing his rumpled business suit from the meeting, relieved after seeing his brother and being assured Oman would make a full recovery. He stopped when he saw how serious the other Nations—even America—looked.

"Er…I've missed something again…haven't I?"

* * *

Li shifted on the run-down bed she was tied to, trying to find a position that wouldn't make her arms hurt as much as they did. The woman tending to her had left, and after a while Li's headache had subsided enough for her to manage sitting up. Through the hazy fog that covered all of her recent memories, Li was able to recall being hit on the head with enough force to make her black out. She wondered if she had a concussion—it would explain the pain, the confusion, the nausea that had started up somewhere along the line and refused to go away…

Thinking of the nausea caused her stomach to revolt again, and Li could feel bile rising in her stomach. She pressed her face into the ratty mattress and swallowed as hard as she could, feeling tears start to well up in her eyes. This was humiliating! Having to try not to vomit while tied to a bed, with nothing she could do but wait for her captors to tell her what they wanted…rescue was probably out of the question. While the Nations had been kind to Li, she didn't think they were willing to risk their lives for her.

She needed to think up a plan, some way to escape, but her mind was drawing only blanks. Could she afford the time it would take for her head to get better? Probably not…and it was so hard to focus, even now! Her mind kept wandering, noting small details of the room around her, or getting lost in memories. Like that one time…

Her mind drifted to memories of the summer before last, when she had gone to Ember Island with Ru, Kai, and Kuzon. Well, if she wanted to be technical, it was her, Ru, Kai, Kuzon, Kuzon's guard-in-training Yueliang, a squadron of Imperial Guards, and a veritable army of tutors. The last three didn't stand out in her memory as much as Ru and Kuzon and Kai, though. She could still remember the way the sand looked in the sunlight, the taste of frozen cream from a beach vendor, the crashing sound the waves made. If she closed her eyes, maybe she could pretend she was back there...

No, wait! Closing her eyes might mean she would fall asleep, and Li did not think that was a good idea. What if her captors entered while she was sleeping, and killed her when she was defenseless? What if her head was hurt worse than she thought, and she died in her sleep? She had to stay awake, Li had to stay awake! Sleep would make her vulnerable, and that was the worst thing she could be right now.

_You'll have to sleep sometime_, Li's voice of reason pointed out.

_Shut up. I'm not getting into another pointless argument with myself_, Li snapped back. _It'll just waste time I don't have._

_You really should be worried about everything in that sentence_, the voice of reason mused. _But I'll shut up now and let you try to think._

Hm. While her voice of reason had a point, Li had other things to worry about. Like getting out of this situation.

A dull ache started to spread from her shoulders down to her upper back, and Li wrestled herself around to alleviate the pain. Her resulting pose made her knees start to protest, so she curled up as best she could and looked up at the ropes tying her to the bedpost.

Tying a Firebender up with rope was only the second-best option. Metal restraints were preferred, of course, as they would take greater heats to discard and molten metal hurt a lot more than ashes. If Li didn't mind Firebending, she could singe a part the rope until it was frail enough to break. But that option ran the risk of setting the rope on fire, and getting burns on her wrists and parts of her hands. Those would need immediate treatment, and her hands would be useless for hours afterwards, possibly a day or more. Using her teeth to untie the rope was laughable—Li had no idea where the ends were, and she'd lose a tooth pulling on the thick rope. Really, Firebending was her best bet...but...

Firebending the ropes off also ran the risk of her captors learning about her ability, and Li was positive she wouldn't be able to keep it from the Nations after that. Killing everyone who saw her Firebend was unacceptable, if only because Li had no idea if there were any innocents nearby. If she managed to set the rope on fire—and, knowing how unpredictable her Firebending had been of late, that wouldn't be much of a surprise—Li would have to deal with severe burns and the wrath of her captors.

So Firebending was out. What other ways could she try using to escape? That woman who had tended her—could she speak Li's language? Could Li try convincing her to help Li escape? But what if that woman was working with Li's captors willingly? She would tell Li's captors, those fake janitors, and then Li would be in trouble.

It occurred to Li that she'd been captured by cleaning men. She snickered at the thought, more amused than she should be. Oh, if Ru could see her now…actually, Li was happy Ru couldn't see her then. Ru would give her one of those "oh-dear-Pele-please-tell-me-this-isn't-as-stupid-as-it-sounds" looks, deal with the problem in a few minutes, then conspire with Li's Firebending teacher Master Qien to create a training program from the Poles. At the end of everything, Li would be exhausted, hurting all over, and hopefully better prepared for the next time she was attacked.

No, no, she had to focus! She had to think up a plan! Plans were good, plans let you know where you stood, what you would do when. Li liked plans. So what was the plan for this?

Well, for starters, she didn't think she could slip her bindings without causing herself some sort of harm. She had no idea what was outside the room, or how much resistance she would encounter if she stormed out. And when she got out of whatever building she was in, there would be a completely unknown land to deal with. Was she still in "Iran"? In the desert? Had they moved her to a totally different area? How long had she been out before waking up, anyways?

Too many questions! Too many uncertainties, too many things she didn't know! Li ground her teeth in frustration, ignoring a voice suspiciously similar to Ru's that told her to stop before she hurt her teeth. What would Ru do in a situation like this?

_I wouldn't be in this situation_, a Ru-voice in Li's head replied. Was it just Li, or did the Ru-voice sound smug? Where had the Ru-voice come from, anyways? Could it offer any useful information?

_Yes, yes, you'd be smart enough to avoid this, but if, hypothetically speaking, you_ did _wind up here_… Li wondered why she was talking to the Ru-voice. It was a part of her mind, right? She should be able to make it say whatever she wanted it to, right?

_Hardly_, the Ru-voice sighed. _And if I were in your place, I would gather information_.

_You're so helpful_, Li rolled her eyes. _I wonder why I didn't think of that sooner? Maybe because I'm tied to a bed in an empty room? And here I was, thinking you could help._

_You're using sarcasm against a figment of your imagination_, Ru-voice pointed out. _That's about as helpful as I'm being._

_Thanks for that_, Li thought, _but if Ru would be smart enough to not be in this situation, could you at least give me some advice like she would?_

_Advice?_ Ru-voice seemed surprised. _I'm a part of your mind, created from all that you know of Ru. Any advice you get from me will be from you, in the long run._

_Yes, I realize that, but it's making me feel better to talk to you_, Li explained. _And it's helping me focus._

_Hm. If it helps you focus_, _then_, Ru-voice paused. _Wait._

Li lay as still as she could, waiting for the voice to continue. Some indeterminable amount of time later—it could have been an hour, it could have been seconds, Li didn't know, her headache kept her from properly sensing the sun's position—she started to wonder if she'd lost whatever mental state she'd been in that allowed her to talk to the Ru-voice.

_Of course not_, the Ru-voice scoffed. _I meant to wait where you are, until an opportunity presents itself to allow you to gather information._

_Why couldn't you have just_ said _that?_ Li mentally screamed at the Ru-voice.

_Because the real Ru wouldn't have! Are you not getting the fact that I'm mostly restricted to saying what Ru would say?_ If Li could have seen the Ru-voice, she would have imagined it throwing up its hands in exasperation. _Listen! I am a compendium of all that you know about Long Ru Jing, and until you don't need me anymore, I'll be in your head keeping you company. My temper is quite a bit shorter than the real Ru's, because as a part of your mind I've absorbed a few of your traits, and I'm getting very fed up with you. Weren't you talking with your "voice of reason" not that long ago?_

_Well, yes, but that was just me thinking at myself_, Li cast her thoughts back to when she'd "spoken" with her voice of reason. _It's like…I know the sensible thing, but I'm ignoring it._

_And you know Ru_, the Ru-voice reminded Li, _and my presence works on the same principle. _

_Does that mean I'm not going crazy?_ Li asked the Ru-voice. _I was worried…well, hearing voices, it's not the best sign…and considering…_

_You're no more crazy than you were before your head was hit_, the Ru-voice shrugged. How a non-physical thing could shrug, Li didn't know. Maybe it was figurative. Heh, figurative actions for a being without a figure… _All right, stop that!_

_Sorry_, Li apologized. _I didn't know you were so touchy. Ru's not. Did you get that from me? Heh, that kinda makes it sound like you're my kid…_

_I'm not offended, and I don't care about being a figment of your imagination_, the Ru-voice corrected Li. _But your thoughts were starting to drift off, and that's bad. We need you focused, or as focused as I can make you, so we can plan an escape._

"_We"?_ Li thought, and groaned aloud. She immediately regretted it—noise made her head hurt worse. _Great, now I'm referring to myself in the plural. Provided you can actually be counted as me?_

_This is a waste of time_, the Ru-voice sounded weary. _Just try to stay awake until something happens, something you can use to learn more about the situation._

_It occurs to me that I was doing exactly that before you started talking to me_, Li pointed out. _How has this conversation achieved anything?_

_You were on the verge of panicking before because you didn't have a plan_, the Ru-voice informed Li. _Now that you've told yourself through me what Ru would have told you to do, you feel better about doing it. And you have the comforting presence of a figment of your imagination to stay with you, and keep you awake._

_This is comforting? Seems more annoying to me_, Li argued. _And the more we talk, the less you sound like Ru, and the more you sound like me._

_What do you expect? I _am_ you! Or a part of you, at least._

_Still…I thought I knew Ru well enough to keep a figment of my imagination that sounds like her true to the real thing_, Li sighed.

_Not to give you any excuses, but you do have a head injury._

_True. Don't suppose you know how long that's going to be a problem for me?_

_Do you know?_

_Would I be asking if I did?_

_I'll presume that's a no, and if you don't know yourself, how can you expect a piece of your mind to know?_

_Also true…_

_This is going to be a long wait, isn't it?_

_Yup._

_Joy._

_You're sounding more and more like me, and it's weird…_

_Would you just focus on staying awake already?_

Li shifted herself again in hopes of finding a position that would make her arms hurt less. She got the feeling that this would be a long…however much time it took for a concussion to heal.

* * *

**Li: Aaaand, I'm hallucinating my best friend's voice, possibly because I have a head wound. I'm pretty sure I don't normally hallucinate and have imaginary conversations with Ru, so let's chalk it up to a head wound and move on with life!**

**Me: =.= I...will go sleep now...**

**Li: You do that.**


	47. Team

**Me: =.= Sorry there was no chapter last week...my schoolwork is taking up a lot of my time, and a cold is threatening to show up so I need to sleep more. It's very likely I won't be able to update next week, so I apologize in advance.**

**Li: Karen does not own Avatar or Hetalia. The character Israel was borrowed from fellow author katzsoa, whose name I think I spelled right? **

* * *

Li's first clue that someone was coming was the footsteps in the hall. She sat up as fast as she could, wrenching her shoulder by accident and making her leg wound start to bleed into the bandages.

_Be more careful_, Ru-voice hissed. Is the arm still usable? _Good, it just hurts a lot, there should be nothing keeping you from fighting with it. If someone comes in, remain calm. Don't reveal anything, let them do most of the talking. Try to pay attention to their body language, it'll tell you a lot._

_Since you're me, you should realize that I don't know the first thing about reading body language_, Li sighed.

_Yes, but that's what the real Ru would have told you to do._

_How are you being "comforting," again?_ Li mentally snapped at the Ru voice.

_Sh, sh, the door's opening!_

Li arranged herself as casually as she could, and tried to slow her racing heartbeat. The door started to open, and she forced her face muscles to relax. Her leg wound was painful, but not nearly as bad as a third-degree burn could get. She would swear she still felt something in her leg, but she didn't know what she could do about it.

The door swung fully open to reveal a man with tan skin and short black hair, wearing a mismatched assortment of robes. He had one of those metal weapons hanging from a strap slung across his left shoulder, close to his hand. Li didn't doubt he was proficient with it: his eyes reminded her of some of the old guards from the Palace, or the Home Guard, the ones who had participated in quelling the rebellions twenty-some years ago.

"So you're the prisoner," the man took a step into the room. He surveyed Li with cold eyes: she tried to look defiant. Her efforts likely failed, as one side of his mouth twitched up. Li felt her fists start to curl up, and she forced them to lay flat on her legs.

"Who are you?" Li demanded.

_See if you can get him to brag_, Ru-voice advised.

_Shut up and let me think_, Li told it.

_I am you thinking._

_Shut up!_

"Yes, because I am going to tell you that," the man rolled his eyes, "and I am going to tell you all about my plan, because I am the stereotypical American villain."

_Oh, a smart villain. Wonderful. Acknowledge his intellect, try not to offend him, and see if you can establish a rapport with him._

_Why are you repeating everything Ru taught me about how to handle a kidnapping?_

_Why are you hallucinating Ru's voice?_

_Because I know her well enough to know what she'd say?_

_Touché. _

"I just wanted to know your name," Li spoke carefully. "What am I supposed to call you otherwise? 'Scary man that hasn't killed me yet'?"

_Humor, probably not a good idea…_

"You aren't supposed to call me anything," the man replied. Li tried to look around him, but he was taking up most of the doorframe. "You are supposed to tell me all about yourself."

"Tell a man holding me captive all about myself?" Li looked him in the eye, and immediately looked away—he scared her. He knew he scared her, too, and he was going to use it to his advantage.

"Well, I've never met one of your kind before," he shrugged. "It'd be interesting to talk to you, don't you think?" At "one of your kind," Li twitched. Did he know about her Firebending? Was he involved with Summer at all?

_Figure out what he means!_ Ru-voice screamed at her. _He might be talking about something else! Don't panic until you know everything!_

"'My kind,'" Li repeated slowly. "What do you mean by that?"

"Don't you know?" The man laughed. "My, how tricky of you."

_Okay, he's read the Kidnapper's Survival Guide and knows you have too_, Ru-voice mused. _He'll be expecting you to follow it._

_So what do I do now?_ Li panicked. She felt herself start to hyperventilate, and shut her eyes briefly to help calm down. The man definitely noticed, yet refrained from speaking. Did he want her calm enough to be rational? How would that help him get any information out of her?

_Follow the rules. See if you can find a chink in his knowledge, and exploit that._

_And if there _isn't_ one?_

_I…will get back to you?_

_Yup. Such a help, you are…_

_It's not my fault if I'm limited to your knowledge! The real Ru definitely knows a lot more. You should have paid attention when she told you about these things._

"How are your wounds?" The man asked, interrupting Li's conversation with the Ru-voice. Li glanced up at him, then fixed her eyes on the floor near his feet.

"Painful," she answered. "I don't suppose you would take me to a hospital?"

"And allow your fellows to rescue you? No, I think not," the man leaned against one side of the doorframe, revealing a section of the area outside. "We have a doctor coming to take a look at your leg. He'll be able to take out the bullet." Bullet? Was that what was lodged in her leg? Li'd known something was in there!

"Thank you," Li's eyes darted up to look at the space beyond the door. It looked like the door opened to a hallway, made from the same material as the room Li was in. She couldn't see anything else past her captor. "But why would you care about that? Aren't you going to kill me anyways?"

"Kill you?" the man sounded surprised. "Why would I do that?"

"I've seen your face," Li reminded him. "I can identify you. Obviously you don't plan to release me, even if you do ransom me. You could keep me a prisoner forever, but there's always the risk of me escaping. So, to eliminate all risks, you must be planning on killing me."

"What if I want something from you?" the man raised an eyebrow.

_Don't show fear_, Ru-voice warned as Li's stomach soured. _Take a deep breath…yes, like that…_

"If you want something, you'll take it before killing me," Li's eyes darted to the side. Her voice was hoarse, and despite Li's best efforts even a child would have known she was scared. She realized she was leaning away from the man, drawing herself in to appear smaller.

_Presenting yourself as the scared, vulnerable girl…good_, Ru-voice gave her approval. _He won't expect it when you fight back and incapacitate him._

_Remember that leg wound? And the ropes tying me to this bed?_

…_Right. No fighting just yet, then._

"Which is why we're talking," the man folded his arms. "So tell me about yourself. Where are you from?"

Li hesitated. She couldn't tell him about the Fire Nation—he'd think she was lying, or crazy. If she told him about Austria's home, her employer would be in danger. Maybe…?

"Moscow," she looked up at him briefly. The moment their eyes met, she shivered and looked away.

_Making eye contact, trying to convince him you're telling the truth_, Ru-voice noted. _He probably won't believe you, but if you're reluctant on your next answer, he'll be more likely to accept that one._

"Of course," the man's voice dripped with sarcasm. "A young girl with an American accent is from Moscow. That's what I was thinking."

"My family moved right after I was born," Li darted her eyes up at him and away again, hoping he knew she was lying.

"Moved to where? Alaska?" The man inquired.

"Yeah," Li nodded. "That was it."

"What city?"

_And this is where the lie gets found out_, Ru-voice sounded satisfied. _Cling to it, make him think you're reluctant, then tell him you're from New York. Summer said you could be from there._

"It's small," Li let her voice waver. "You wouldn't know the name."

"I will Google it," the man suggested. Li frowned.

_What's "Google"?_ Ru-voice whispered.

_I don't know! And why are you whispering? I'm the only person who can hear you!_

_It seems appropriate, considering the situation!_

_Shut up and let me lie!_ "I—I don't think you'll find it," Li didn't have to fake terror: she _was_ terrified. At least she'd listened to her tutors when they'd taught her how to mislead people when being held captive. Okay, she'd been doodling on spare paper with her brush, instead of taking notes. But she was pretty sure she remembered enough to fake this…

_You've never had a good track record with acting_, Ru-voice reminded her.

_Exactly what I needed to hear_, Li snapped at the voice. _And aren't you supposed to be helping?_

_Aren't you supposed to be in your own world, at the North Pole, trying to decide what you'll do about the people who murdered your little brother and oppress your people?_

…_Touché. Wait, what does that word even mean?_

_Not sure. France just says it when someone makes a good point. It does sound cool, doesn't it?_

_Wait, pay attention, he's about to talk!_

"That's okay," the man smiled. "I'm sure I can find some trace of it."

_Make something up, make something up!_

"It's called…Zhèn," Li looked down.

"A Chinese name for a town in Alaska?" The man chuckled. "My my, isn't that something."

"I know, I've never understood it either," Li tried to laugh, but couldn't. "Kind of silly, right?"

"How about we cut to the chase, then?" the man stepped forward, and Li shied back. Her leg started to scream in protest, and she hissed in pain. Her hand went to her leg, but the moment she touched the skin near the wound it started to hurt worse.

The man paused, staring at her leg. Li's face scrunched up in pain, and she closed her eyes. A low hiss escaped her mouth, and she clenched her teeth together to prevent from making another sound.

Why was the man just standing there? What did he want from Li? She opened her eyes a crack to see what he was doing. His face was unreadable, and aside from breathing he didn't look to be moving.

"Don't suppose you have any aspirin?" Li gasped. His mouth twitched up into a smile, for only a second, before returning to a neutral set.

"I'll give you aspirin if you'll tell me where you're really from," he offered.

_Go for it_, Ru-voice urged.

"New York City," Li hissed.

"Where in New York City?" The man challenged.

Where was America's apartment, where…

"Manhattan," Li answered. She screwed her eyes all the way shut and tried to keep her breathing steady. Who knew having something lodged in your leg muscle could hurt so much? That being a rhetorical question, and excepting people who'd had things lodged in their leg muscle before.

"Thank you," the man sounded satisfied. Li peeked up at him, wondering what he could think so important about where she was from. He had a strange gleam in his eye, like a flying lemur that had outsmarted a hogmonkey and stolen a cache of leechi nuts. His mouth was wide open in a grin, his teeth glistening in the light from the bare lightbulb.

Li started to feel uneasy. What was going on here? Had her answer confirmed some suspicion of this man's? Why was he smiling like that.

"One more question," he told her. "After that, I'll go find you some aspirin. The doctor should be here in a day or two."

"Oh yay," Li rolled her eyes. "A whole day or two more of something in my leg."

_Don't be smart with him, you could make him angry_, Ru-voice admonished.

"Then tell me, miss," the man's smile widened, "do you have any siblings?"

That was an unexpected question… "Of course I do," Li answered in confusion. Siblings? Did that matter? At least she actually had siblings, so that wasn't a total lie…and you'd be hard-pressed to find only children in the Four Nations. Didn't that pattern apply everywhere?

_Li, he was talking about "your kind" earlier, right?_ Ru-voice questioned suddenly. _I don't think he was referring to your Firebending._

"Thank you, Miss New York," the man flashed Li one final grin and disappeared out the door, closing it firmly behind him and leaving Li very confused.

_What did he mean by that?_ Li asked the Ru-voice.

_You really can't tell?_

_If I could tell, would I be asking?_

_Come now. He called you "New York" after you said that was where you were from, he asked if you had siblings, he mentioned "your kind"…_

_Still don't get it._

_Remember when Romano told you about how Japan's prefectures were personified? And how America told you about how he had fifty states?_

_I don't…oh._

Li gulped. Her captors thought _she_ was a Nation.

_This isn't good_, Ru-voice observed.

_You think?_

* * *

America looked around at the Nations with him, honestly surprised they had come. None of them liked him, he knew that, save for Israel. She was fidgeting uncomfortably on his right, taking a drink from a bottle of water every thirty seconds. Iran and Iraq were whispering to each other, glancing over at America every once in a while. Afghanistan and Pakistan were pointedly ignoring each other, while Saudi Arabia looked ready to slap his forehead and proclaim the rest of the Middle Eastern Nations to be total idiots.

"This is a bad idea," Israel muttered for the umpteenth time. America laughed it off—heroes didn't have bad ideas! Well, all right, maybe a couple of times, but that was just so to create dramatic tension so that later the hero could save the day even _more_ spectacularly! Israel was being skeptical, which was a good thing, because she would be prepared for any trouble the hero couldn't see. And that hero was America, who was gonna save the day and the damsel in distress (Li)!

With a satisfied grin on his face, America finished off the last of his burger and rolled up the greasy paper wrapping. He wiped his fingers on his pant leg, and tossed the ball of paper into a nearby trash can. Right in the basket, three points! Yeah, his skills were doing great this afternoon!

And now, to deliver his heroic speech to his elite team of backup. America stood and cleared his throat, the signal for everyone to stop doing what they were doing and start paying attention to the hero. Israel set her water bottle down, but nobody else paid him any attention.

That would have to be rectified. "Attention, everyone!" America called. "The hero is about to speak!"

"Hero? Where?" Iraq sat up in his chair and started looking around wildly. Clearly America shouldn't have loaned him a copy of "Up" last year.

"Very funny," America beamed. "You know what's even funnier? Nuclear warheads being dropped on Bagdad!" Iraq glared at America, but slumped down in his seat. The other Middle Eastern Nations turned their eyes to America, albeit reluctantly.

"So why, pray tell, did you want us to come here?" Saudi Arabia folded his hands in his lap. America gave him an approving nod—Saudi Arabia was, after Israel, the Middle Eastern Nation with the best political relations to America. Just like the man who'd told America about Iran's funny business to get to the point!

"You all remember the attack yesterday," America began. Pakistan threw her head back and groaned.

"Not this again…" she sighed.

"No, America, I've completely forgotten about the attack yesterday," Afghanistan rolled his eyes. "I also know nothing about the interrogations Iran has men doing right now, or the fact that several of our fellow Nations are still in the hospital."

"Really? You want me to remind you?" America offered. Afghanistan forgetting wasn't that surprising, but still, America had thought even the Taliban-infested Nation had a better grasp on things.

"Sarcasm, America," Afghanistan snapped. "Learn it. Just because I'm in the middle of huge political upheavals, I can still remember when something important happens."

"Woah, sorry dude, thought we were friends and all, y'know?" America grinned. He was in full-blown idiot-hero-with-a-great-plan mode, the mode Nations all over the world had learned to regard with caution since the second World War. With his smile affixed firmly to his face, America picked up a piece of paper and held it out to the other Nations proudly.

"This," he explained, "is what we've gathered concerning the abduction of Austria's maid Li, who's really fun to watch movies and play video games with."

"Didn't she throw you through a window at Russia's place?" Iran interrupted.

"Yup! And I had to walk on crutches because she hit my stomach really really hard!" America beamed. "She got shot in the leg, so I don't think she'll be going anywhere while she's still a prisoner. But our intelligence has managed to narrow down the areas she might be in."

"Why is he saying 'our' intelligence? Doesn't he mean 'your' intelligence? His people haven't been doing a thing!" Iraq whispered to his brother.

"Since Li was only there because of me, and since her quick action helped save us, we obviously have to rescue her," America continued.

"She was just the closest person to the door," Pakistan grumbled. "If I'd been closer, I'd have been the one to do all that stuff."

"We know," Saudi Arabia assured her. "Now humor America."

"That's why I've called you all here," America put down the paper and placed his hands on the desk. Leaning in, he lowered the volume of his voice and schooled his face into a serious expression. Pakistan opened her mouth to express her shock, but Afghanistan put a hand over it. He was bitten for his trouble, and the two started flicking small objects at each other while America spoke.

"Chance or no, Li saved us," America reminded his fellow Nations, "and when she was wounded she worked to help keep us safe once again. We would have gotten out without her there, I know, but she _was_ there and she _did_ make the whole situation easier for us to handle. And in the end, we were unable to prevent her from being kidnapped. That means we still owe her one."

"And that you don't want Austria ripping you a new one," Iraq snorted. His brother shushed him, and nodded to America to continue.

"I want you guys to form a team with me, to go after the terrorists and rescue Li," America summed. The Nations jumped in surprise, even Israel—maybe America should have told her before now…ah well, she knew now. He added, "Austria already sent me a tape of him playing Chopin, so that worry's gone."

"_Us_?" Saudi Arabia yelped once he had found his voice. "The Nations _ourselves_?"

"Yup," America nodded. "She saved _us_. It makes sense that we repay her personally."

"Putting our people and homes at risk, all to save a normal human girl?" Pakistan threw her hands up in dismay, giving Afghanistan the opening he needed to hit her side with an eraser. "He's crazy! I told you! Westerners, they're all crazy!"

"America, think about this," Israel cautioned. "Will there be normal humans in the team? Will they know our status? What if one of us gets hurt while looking for Li? I thought she was nice, but she's unimportant in the big picture. We can't afford to run off rescuing every ordinary human being that gets endangered because of our status: we wouldn't have any time for paperwork, or official duties. Personal time would be out of the question"

"I don't think we should do this for everyone," America shrugged. "Just Li."

"Why? Because she'll stand you freaking out over a movie about ghost pictures?" Afghanistan snorted.

"Yeah," Iraq leaned forward. "What's so special about this one human?"

"Absolutely nothing," America sat down. "She's just one ordinary mortal. But she doesn't deserve to be a prisoner of terrorists, and we're in a position to do something about it, sort of. So I want to do something."

"You want to save this girl because you can?" Saudi Arabia scoffed. "That's hardly sound logic."

"Don't expect sound logic from America," Afghanistan advised. "You learn not to, after he's been calling you a friend for more than a year and starts calling you up wanting to play video games and shirk work."

"Guys, this isn't about duty as a Nation, or the risks, or how stupid it is, or any of that!" America insisted. "It's about saving someone."

"Because you're the hero," Iran and Iraq chorused, rolling their eyes.

"No," America shook his head firmly. "Because it's the right thing to do." He looked around at the other Nations, trying to decide how to convince them. Maybe "it's the right thing to do" just wasn't enough for them? Could he appeal to something else?

Everyone was silent for a minute, then two, then three, then five…it stretched out until, ten minutes after America's last words, Israel stood up.

"I'm with America," she declared. "And not because he's America—because I do think this is the right thing to do."

"Enlighten us, please," Saudi Arabia motioned for Israel to explain.

"Mostly, I'm agreeing because I'm sick of being unable to do anything to the terrorists that plague me and my people," Israel sucked in a breath, "but also because I agree with America that this is the right thing to do. I talked to Li. Maybe that biases me towards her, as opposed to the strangers who get killed and harmed and kidnapped that I do nothing for, but I want to send a message with this: that the country of Israel refuses to sit idly by. That I'm taking action…and that I think you should too."

The other Nations stared at her. Then Saudi Arabia sighed. "I will do this as well," he put his head in his hands, "if only so that I may have the moral high ground."

"We're in," Iran gestured to himself and his brother, "if only so we can stick it to America by being the heroes, instead of him."

"I'll do it," Afghanistan ground his teeth, "if only because America will whine at me until I have to agree to make it stop, otherwise."

"If Afghanistan's doing it, I don't want to," Pakistan turned her nose up.

"Aww! But you're the best medic in the Middle East!" America pleaded. Pakistan froze at the compliment, and America knew he just needed to give one more push. "Plus, after all that aid I've sent you over the years, don't you feel obligated to help me out?"

"…I'll do it," Pakistan grumbled, looking away.

"Great! Team's all set!" America cheered. "Okay, here's our plan of attack: Israel, you're my backup. Iran, Iraq, you're my backup. Saudi Arabia, you're my backup. Afghanistan, you're my backup. Pakistan, you're my medic backup!"

"I want a new plan," Iran dropped his head into his arms.


	48. Doctor

**Aaaand, after a period of Real Life being evil and keeping me from having the time to write, I've hit a lull. I'll be trying to get back on my regular weekly update schedule, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to, since I've got a month of school left and my grades are not where I'd like them to be.**

**I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or Hetalia: Axis Powers. My original characters are co-owned with a friend who helped me develop them.**

**Now I will sleep. Sleeeeeeeep... =.=**

* * *

The doctor poked Li's leg, and she squeaked. His metal instrument was cold, and painful when it came in contact with the inflamed skin around her bullet wound. Li hoped it wasn't infected—infection could mean the difference between walking again and losing a leg. She would lose most of the leg, too, because the wound was in the meatiest part of her upper thigh. No bones had broken, thank goodness, but the wound hurt more than Li cared for.

Another instrument touched the red skin, and Li squeaked again. The metal tips pressed into her tender flesh, forcing the edges of the wound apart, and Li tilted her head back so she wouldn't have to look. Blood didn't scare her, it just made her want to throw up. She could stand it if she had to. Honest. What she couldn't stand was how much the metal instruments were starting to _hurt_…

"Partially healed," the doctor observed, "and the bullet has lodged in about an inch down from the surface of the skin. I will need to completely re-open the wound to remove the bullet, and it looks like infection is starting to set in."

"Infection?" Li snapped her head forward, eyes wide with fear.

"Yes, but I think it will not be a problem if I disinfect the wound now," the doctor assured her. Li gulped—disinfecting wounds usually meant pouring pure alcohol onto the exposed tissues, or sake or beer or some sort of alcoholic beverage if you couldn't afford first-quality medical care. Going by her surroundings, Li didn't think her captors were about to afford her first-quality care, even if they thought she was a Nation.

_If they think you're a Nation, they'll probably assume you have a greater healing capacity than a normal human, simply because they think you're not human_, Ru-voice spoke. _Which makes absolutely no sense, because it took years for the Earth Kingdom to recover from the War. If you think about it, a normal human would have been fully healed after a year, provided they had competent medical care._

_When you say "war," you mean the hundred-year-long War that left half of the Earth Kingdom in the hands of the Fire Nation or burned? That War?_

_You'll recall the Fire Nation helped the Earth Kingdom recover, even turned the Colonies into the United Republic? That would have helped the process along considerably, if the Four Nations were personified._

_But the Earth Kingdom probably fully regenerated, no visible wounds, if it's personified. That's much more impressive than a normal human's healing capabilities, which leaves them with scars, but it also would take longer._

_Why are we even talking about this? I'm in pain, and it's only going to get worse before it gets better. Be quiet and let me suffer in peace._

Li winced as the doctor pulled out another tool, anticipating the coming pain. He gave her a sympathetic look, and stuck the end of the metal rod into her bullet wound. Knowing it was coming didn't help Li stay silent, and a high-pitch whine escaped her mouth.

By the door, two men—neither the one who had questioned Li, and called her "New York"—were standing guard. They held the metal weapons Li kept seeing, which presumably shot "bullets." Whenever Li made a noise or a sudden move, they tightened their grips on their weapons and tensed, in case she was about to attempt an escape. Attempt an escape, with her leg throbbing and too painful to walk on…they were definitely not taking any chances.

"As I thought, an inch," the doctor confirmed his previous diagnosis. "The wound has begun healing, and I will have to enlarge it to properly remove the bullet. Once that is done, I will be able to disinfect and properly bandage the area. Bear with me—and know that this will hurt."

"Don't you have any painkillers?" Li asked desperately. "Aspirin, at least? Something stronger?"

"No, I don't," the doctor smiled apologetically. "You don't make much money doing charity work all the time. I can't afford to give painkillers to everyone. Most people do fine without, and those who can't usually pass out while I'm working." Seeing the look on Li's face, he realized his words weren't the most comforting. "And you seem like a hardy young girl…I'm sure you'll do fine."

"That's not helping," Li informed him. She had rarely needed to go without painkillers, and wasn't too confident of how well she could handle herself without them. Waterbender Healing always had some strange, dulling effect as it worked, and the Fire Nation's healers had several potent anesthetic plants from the jungle to use. In the Earth Kingdom, markets always carried plenty of first-aid supplies, including painkillers. Even the Water Tribes had adequate supplies of painkillers, derived from seaweed and fish.

_Stop being a child and take it_, Ru-voice ordered.

"Just…just do whatever you have to," Li squeezed her eyes shut. Her hands clenched the bedsheets, her body already tense in anticipation. She shivered as the doctor wiped a wet rag on her skin through the hole he'd cut in her jeans for easy access, feeling drops of water slide down her leg to the edges of the cut. There was a rattle of metal, and something cold touched her skin.

It turned out Li did very, very badly without painkillers.

* * *

"Jia forgot about us, didn't she?" Hong asked Liandao. He was Earthbending small pebbles at the fish in the pond, managing not to hit Li (though several of those rocks had gone quite close).

"She told us she'd be out in ten minutes," Liandao agreed, arm sweeping her brush in a broad stroke. "That was an hour and a half ago. If we leave now, all the sea prunes will be gone by the time we get back to the others. They've probably finished eating already, and just left a few of the bad dishes for us. I should have known Jia wouldn't be able to get away from her family." Hong fake-gagged at the mention of sea prunes, upper lip curling in disgust.

"Why'd you wanna come out here and watch fish swim?" Hong nicked the white fish's tail, and Liandao felt a sudden surge of nausea. The fish swam away from its black partner, and flicked its tail out of the water. A small whip of water flew out and hit Hong right between the eyes.

Liandao started to laugh as Hong clutched his face and yelled Earth Kingdom curses. "Waterbending fish," she gasped out. "Beware the Waterbending fish! For they are testy, and do not like having rocks thrown at them!" Some of the paint from her brush dripped onto her leg, and she frowned in annoyance. Ink was hard to wash out.

"Liandao!" Hong whined. "That's not funny~! Can I eat their heads off?"

"Really?" Liandao chuckled. "A fish Waterbends at you, and your first instinct is to eat its head? What do you want to do when a person Waterbends at you?"

"Eat their head off," Hong answered matter-of-factly. Liandao rolled her eyes and dipped her brush into the small puddle of black ink in her calligraphy set. She studied her work carefully, debating where a little more ink could be best applied.

"And you wonder why you scare small children," Liandao murmured, more to herself than to Hong. The tall Earthbender giggled and walked over to his friend. She felt his body heat as he leaned down until his chin was just over Liandao's head.

"Not bad," he observed. "I like how you made the mustache look real."

"It fits him, doesn't it?" Liandao smiled and surveyed her work. Avatar Xiao Huo, whose past incarnations had saved the world countless times, now had a fake goatee, cat whiskers, and a unibrow, all made of black ink, all courtesy of Liandao Shui.

"The whiskers tilt up at the ends?" Hong noted. "Why'd you draw them like that?"

"It looks cuter," Liandao shrugged. "And sort of devious, too, like he's about to pull on one and laugh diabolically. Don't you think so?"

"I could see him doing that," Hong agreed. "And then Li would say something mean, but he'd twist her words around and she'd get flustered and storm off."

"And Zhu would start to make jokes, and everybody would join in, in their own way, even Ming," Liandao smiled at the thought. "You know, we've really corrupted Ming's innocence, haven't we? Before the Tóngyī Revolution she turned red whenever we so much as hinted at…er," Liandao remembered who she was talking to. "You know what."

"No, I don't," Hong pouted as the mysterious "you know what" came into the conversation. "Seriously!"

"Haven't your parents told you already?" Liandao sighed. "Huo said that they figured he was old enough to know when he asked. Didn't they…?"

"I never asked," Hong replied. "Huo looked really freaked out when he did, so I was too scared." The Earthbender made a thoughtful noise. "Should I have?"

"If you want to completely freak out half of Team Avatar out, go ahead," Liandao shrugged. She nearly shuddered as she thought of Hong making innuendos with the rest of the team. He already made several without realizing their potential meanings, such as when he bragged about how skilled he was with his tongue. That wasn't a reference to anything dirty, but rather a statement of how impressively he could sculpt industrial scrap into delicate works of art (usually unicorns) by stuffing the metal into his mouth and chewing.

Hong was opening his mouth to reply to Liandao when his head perked up, swiveling from side to side. "Someone's outside the gate," he grinned. "Two girls! And a guy."

"Is Jia coming?" Liandao blinked in surprise.

"She was probably doing her hair. Even when we were camping she took a while getting ready in the morning," Hong agreed. "I never really got it…all her little alterations to her hair never changed much."

"Yeah, it was kind of pointless," Liandao agreed. "But it made her feel better."

"Mm," Hong agreed, and the two lapsed into silence. Liandao felt Gregor's body radiating heat, and smiled to herself. He really was a human space heater, all six feet and seven inches of him.

Liandao looked up at the gate, wondering why Jia wasn't coming in—if it was Jia. It could be two women confronting a man who had strung both along. Despite the prevalence of arranged marriages in the Northern Water Tribe, older, married men courting a younger girl on the side and giving false promises to her and her parents that he would marry her…it was more common than you would think. Much more common than Liandao had thought, at least…

* * *

Outside the gate to the Spirit Oasis, the three Tóngyī assassins were waiting for the fourth member of their group. They were unaware anyone was inside the Oasis—an hour ago, when the sun started to set, the body of a guard named Atka had been found murdered. An alarm had spread through the city, and all the guards had been called to search the district the body was found in. Skeleton guards had been left at important posts, like the Palace, Healer's Huts, and armories, but the rest of the city was devoid of warriors.

"Why is it so easy to sneak in?" Lanko wondered aloud, idly tossing a knife in the air and catching it. He balanced it on his finger by the tip of the blade, then flipped it up into the air. The hilt landed neatly in his palm, and he spun it around his fingers before tossing it up again.

"Would you stop that? You're going to hurt yourself," Meiko scolded her younger brother. "And it _is_ easier to sneak into someplace when everyone is distracted by a murder."

"Perhaps we should make it a permanent tactic," Duyao suggested. Lanko and Meiko frowned and looked at her. She raised an eyebrow, the rest of her face remaining blank. The two Water Tribe members sighed and looked away.

"Zuzhou should be here soon," Meiko muttered to herself, looking up towards the wall. The Northern Water Tribe was so close to the top of the world, the sun in late winter rose only briefly in the southern region of the sky. A few hours of daylight shone around noon, the sun only barely surfacing over the horizon. She'd heard it likened to "hours of sunset"—a fitting description of the atmosphere during that time of year.

"He's kind of creepy, don't you think?" Lanko asked, catching his knife by the blade. He tossed it up, the butt of the hilt landing on his finger, and proceeded to balance the knife there. "I mean, I guess all spirits are creepy in their own ways, but he's just freaky. That thing with the guy I killed…ew. Wonder how Zuzhou got out…he fixed all the damage, didn't he? Ergh, what if he burst out, and the body just exploded? Ewwww…"

"You're acting like a child," Meiko scowled. "How can you be concerned with such petty things, when we're about to accomplish an important mission?"

"Yeah, yeah, fixing your screw-up," Lanko rolled his eyes. "You couldn't kill her right the first time, so now me and Duyao have to help you fix it. In, out, try not to die…usual undercover mission nobody but us is supposed to know about."

"I didn't make a mistake, a spirit intervened," Meiko snapped. "The fault it not mine, Lord Gege has assured me. We are simply taking measures to ensure that the spirit's tampering is rectified."

"Wasn't it the Moon Spirit?" Lanko chuckled. "You know, the one that bolsters your powers when the moon's full? You're always bragging about how you have her favor on full moons, yet she pulls this on you…"

"Shut up and wait for Zuzhou!" Meiko fumed.

"No, no, see, it's an interesting line of thought," Lanko insisted. "If the Moon Spirit is helping the other side, and she's the one boosting your Waterbending, what does that mean about your allegiances? Are you, a Waterbender, on the wrong side after all?"

"You know I'm not," Meiko hissed. She glared at her little brother, hands clenching into fists. "Have you forgotten that it was Lord Gege who took us in after we were thrown out of our second home, on that pirate ship? He fed us, clothed us, saw that we had something of an education in things other than fighting and surviving, gave us his trust! When the movement began to gather an even stronger support basis amongst the common people last year, and he first made plans to overthrow the corrupt old regimes, who did he ask to lead the attack that killed the leaders of that regime?"

"Us," Lanko replied, the knife on his fingertip tipping over. He caught it with his other hand, and held up the free hand to inspect the nails. "Hm. My fingernails are dirty."

"If you pick them clean with your knife—oh, why do I even bother?" Meiko grumbled as Lanko started to scrape the tip of his whalebone knife under the torn edges of his fingernails. "That is a terrible habit. I raised you better."

"Yup," Lanko agreed. "Hey, I think I missed some dried blood last time…and what's this green stuff?"

"It amazes me that we're related," Meiko shook her head in disgust. She glanced at the horizon again, trying to judge from the orange and yellow lights visible over the wall to the south. The moon had yet to rise, even though by all rights it should have been out. Was that a bad omen?

Lanko refused to answer Meiko's assertion, and the silence stretched well past the range of awkwardness. Duyao maintained her stoic attitude, staring intently at the empty space in front of her, giving no indication as to her thoughts. Maybe she didn't have any at all, and was simply a shell of a human being, carrying out orders and fulfilling basic bodily needs and doing nothing else. Meiko wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

The light on the horizon slowly dimmed, and Meiko began to worry. Where was Zuzhou?

A hand touched Meiko's shoulder, and she whirled around with a yelp, pulling some water from the snow around her into a thin stream. She started to slice the water forward, intent on cutting whoever had surprised her in half, but was able to stop herself as she realized it was Zuzhou. His lips were twisted into a smile, but the expression was pointless while his eyes remained glassy and lifeless.

"You're very tense," Zuzhou noted. Lanko snorted, but wisely refrained from speaking.

"It's true," Duyao spoke. Her voice was monotone, and she was merely making an objective statement, but Meiko glared at her anyways. There was no chance it was meant to entertain—Meiko had established some time ago that Duyao just didn't _have_ a sense of humor.

"You're not helping," Meiko informed her. Duyao shrugged, and looked at Zuzhou. Lanko followed suit, his gaze expectant.

"Soooo, Zhou, whatcha been up to since I saw you last?" Lanko drawled, shoving his knife into its sheath.

"I pretended to be a guard, finished the dead man's shift, went to an area where I could leave the body and it would not be found for several hours, exploded out through the stomach to make it appear to be the result of a violent murder, and spied on a group of old men playing Pai Sho," Zuzhou answered calmly. "One of the men had a very unusual strategy, involving the White Lotus tile. I'm afraid I became caught up watching, and am therefore a late."

Lanko stared at the boy, blinking slowly. "You…you know what? I'm almost sorry I asked."

"Almost implies you are not sorry," Zuzhou looked up, tone thoughtful. "Or would you like to rephrase?"

"I would like to ask you how left the guard's body," Lanko replied. "You said you exploded the stomach?"

"No, I exploded out through the stomach," Zuzhou corrected. "I also played with the body a bit. It will appear at first glance that the cause of death was the result of something large lacerating the stomach. A knowledgeable Healer or warrior will be able to determine the real cause of death soon, which will create more questions, and the confusion shall allow you to slip away without incident once you're done."

"O-kay, then," Lanko nodded. "Shall we?"

"I can't go in with you," Zuzhou's face fell. "The Oasis won't let me step on its land, and if I go beyond this gate I get pins and needles all over. But good luck. And hurry! The sooner Li's dead, the sooner I can move on. Gege will be sad to lose my help, but I only involved myself with him for this purpose."

"Really?" Meiko considered that information for a moment, then decided it didn't matter. A threat to the world's happiness had to be eliminated, and the motives of those who helped her achieve that goal were irrelevant. "Wait here, then. This shouldn't take long."

"Nope, we just gotta kill her for real," Lanko added. Meiko swatted his arm, and he yelped. "What was that for?"

"I felt like it," Meiko turned towards the gate. "Let's go."

* * *

The creak of the gate made Liandao look up, hoping Jia was coming in. Why Jia would have waited outside for so long was beyond Liandao, but at least she was ready now. Huo's face had gained elongated eyebrows, and his ears were rimmed in black, but there was only so much space to work with. Liandao grinned in relief as she saw a brown haired head poke out of the gate.

"Jia, thank goodness, I was—" Liandao cut off as the person crawled out. Their hair was cut in a bob, and they clutched their parka closely around them. Both the haircut and the parka's design told Liandao that this was not Jia. It was a woman, at least. Another woman with black hair was climbing through the gate now, but from the distance Liandao couldn't make out their features.

"Hey, Liandao? They're surprised to see us," Hong sounded worried. Hong, worried? This was serious indeed! Liandao set her brush aside and stood up, patting some loose strands of grass from her split skirt.

"Do you recognize them?" Liandao whispered, hoping the uneasy feeling in her stomach was just her imagination.

"Nope," Hong replied, lowering his head so his broad-rimmed Dai Li hat hid his face from the newcomers. A man climbed through the gate, and shut it firmly behind him. The three clustered together briefly, and Liandao felt a flicker of recognition. But what was it?

Careful not to appear alarmed, Liandao walked around the pond to one of the bridges that connected the small pocket of warm land to the ice walkway around the waters surrounding the Oasis. Hong started to follow, but she motioned for him to stay put. If the growing unease in Liandao's stomach was accurate, Hong might have to protect the defenseless members of the team, and there was no earth anywhere nearby but on the Oasis.

"Excuse me!" Liandao called, breaking into a jog as she headed for the three newcomers. "What are you—"

The black-haired woman looked over at Liandao, who recognized her and froze. Both of their eyes widened in shock, and Liandao thought she felt her heart stop for a moment.

Meiko? What was she _doing_ here, in the heart of the Northern Water Tribe?

Anger surged through Liandao as she remembered that Meiko was the one responsible for the depressing situation Team Avatar was in at the moment. Li lying in a pool of water, nobody knowing if she was alive or dead, Huo and Ru sitting lotus-style on the edge of that pool on some sort of spirit journey…the rest of the group filled with worries and doubts and fears, praying their three "missing" members "reappeared" safely…

She was halfway through the Water Whip before Liandao knew she was attacking. Her teeth clenched, her body taught with fury, Liandao hardened the water into ice the moment before it struck.

Meiko held up a hand, stopping the water an inch from her heart. The blood drained from her face, and for a second Liandao thought she might be able to get in another attack before Meiko reacted.

That hope was dashed as Meiko whipped her hands up, pulling a wave of water with the motion. The water slammed into Liandao, driving her against the ice wall that lined the Oasis. Liandao gurgled as the impact forced her breath out, clawing at the water for a way to the surface. Meiko was making circular motions with her hands, creating miniature currents that held the water in a bubble around Liandao. As she struggled for a way out, panic at the possibility of drowning blocking the simple solution of Waterbending from her mind, Liandao saw Lanko and Duyao running towards her, Lanko brandishing a whalebone machete, Duyao pulling her poisoned needles out of her sleeve.

A shower of pebbles suddenly struck the ground at lightning speed right in front of Lanko and Duyao, and they flinched back. Lanko slipped on a patch of ice and fell, his rear colliding with the edge of the walkway. More pebbles hit the walkway, tearing up the ice and nearly destroying the walkway itself. Shying back, Lanko fell into the water behind him.

"Lanko!" Meiko cried, her concentration breaking. The water bubble fell apart, running over the walkway and back into the pool below, leaving Liandao kneeling and alternately gasping for breath or hacking up water. Duyao had stopped just short of the pebble barrage, and was looking at the Spirit Oasis, the direction the barrage had come from, with a calculating eye.

"You want more?" Hong shouted behind Liandao, pulling up another rock from the earth beneath his feet. He clenched his hand, and the rock collapsed in on itself, becoming smaller but denser. "I learned this one from my brother!" Hong thrust a hand forward, fingers straight out, and small pebbles shot out from the boulder. Meiko pulled up a wall of ice, twenty feet thick at least, but the pebbles shattered it. She barely had time to duck before the wall behind her, right where her head would have been, gained a new hole.

"Duyao, get Lanko!" Meiko yelled to her teammate. Duyao nodded once, and turned her attention from the threat of Hong to Lanko, who had managed to grab the side of the walkway on his way down. Water Tribe members rarely learned how to swim properly: the icy waters of their home killed anyone who fell in within minutes, unless they could get out and dry themselves off. The warm waters of the Oasis wouldn't induce hypothermia…but for someone who couldn't swim, it was dangerous enough.

Duyao leaned down and grabbed Lanko's arm, pulling him further up on the ledge. He struggled to lift his legs over the ledge, thrashing them and nearly dragging Duyao into the water with him. She braced herself and leaned her body weight backwards, using it to keep herself stationary while Lanko got his legs up.

Liandao caught her breath, and realized she couldn't afford to let Lanko get to his feet. Hand-to-hand combat was not one of Liandao's strong points. Hong and Meiko were throwing icicles and pebbles at each other, effectively meaning they would be too busy with each other to help their friends.

Dealing with the non-Benders, then. Liandao could do that.

Her legs shaking slightly, Liandao climbed to her feet. She coughed up the last dregs of water from her system and planted her legs firmly, assuming a basic Waterbending stance. Spreading her arms out, she raised them, and the puddles of water around her rose with her arms. An exhale of breath, a twist of her chi, and the water froze into needles of ice.

Duyao looked up just in time to see the ice needles fly at her and Lanko. Her eyes widened, and she flung herself forward, dragging Lanko with her. They splashed into the water, barely avoiding Liandao's ice needles.

"Ghack!" Lanko sputtered, flailing to keep his head above the water. "Can't…swim…!" Duyao wrapped her arms around him and started kicking her feet viciously, trying to keep them both afloat. Lanko thrashed, not realizing what she was doing, making her job harder.

"Thanks for making this easy!" Liandao taunted them, positioning her arms so they protected her center. She blew out, a fine mist marking her breath, and when the mist touched the water it froze. Ice spread out towards Lanko and Duyao, trapping them with just their heads above the water.

"Water witch!" Lanko shouted furiously. "When I get out of this…"

"Stop stealing Li's nicknames for me!" Liandao smirked. She looked up, seeing Meiko and Hong still trading attacks. Whipping her arms up, Liandao pulled a tendril of water from the pool at Meiko's feet, wrapping it around her ankle. Meiko started in surprise, looking down: that gave Hong the opening he needed.

"For the unicoooooorns!" Hong screamed, pulling up three slender spikes of earth. He punched forward, and the spikes launched towards Meiko. Liandao pulled the water tendril at that exact moment, just enough to break Meiko's balance, and the Waterbender stumbled back against the wall behind her. Hong's earth spikes thudded into the wall a moment later, catching the edges of Meiko's parka and pinning her without drawing any blood.

Liandao braced herself against the wall and breathed deeply, feeling adrenaline still surging through her. She glanced back at Hong, and saw him use his Earthbending to enhance a jump. The Earthbender landed next to Liandao, and straightened.

"We should call in some guards," Hong advised, looking down at Liandao. His hat shadowed his face, making it hard to see anything clearly but his teeth and eyes, which both reflected some of the moonlight.

"They're busy," Lanko called. "Something about a dead guard, or so I hear. Not that I killed it."

"You killed a guard?" Liandao yelped. "Who?"

"You think I ask people I'm about to kill their names?" Lanko demanded. "'Oh, by the way, since I've just shanked you in the back, what's your name?'"

"Does this mean you really are having a thing with one of the guards?" Hong cocked his head to one side. "I mean, it's pretty obvious you're having a thing with someone. You keep sneaking out at night when you think everyone's asleep, and we all make bets on when you'll get back. Mao's started a pool for when you'll tell us. I think some of the old people that live near us are getting in on it too…"

"Why would you…no, don't answer that…" Liandao sighed. These were her friends. Of course they'd noticed her sneaking out, and of course they were betting on it. Why would she expect anything different from Team Avatar? They'd betted on everything during their journey to the North Pole, from who was attracted to whom (in and out of the Team) to how long it would take before someone woke up in the morning.

"If someone's dead, the guards will be busy searching for the killer, won't they?" Hong speculated. "We'll have to question them ourselves, I guess."

"I'd say it's fairly obvious why they're here," Liandao glared at Meiko. "Finish the job, I presume? My questions are more along the line of how you got in, and how you got through the city unseen."

"You'd be surprised how easy it is to get through the city unseen when you know most of its back alleys," Lanko chuckled. "And we just walked up to the wall and went through. My sister Waterbended a doorway for us."

"There are guards…oh," Liandao realized. Of course—they had killed the guard on the walls. Without anyone living to raise the alarm, they would have gotten through easily. But… "Why didn't the other guards raise the alarm when their fellow turned up missing?"

"Weeell…he didn't exactly act dead after I killed him…" Lanko paused. "Hm. I'm just gonna stop there."

"No no, go on," Liandao crossed her arms. "I'd love to hear about how a dead guard didn't act dead, when the full moon's several days past already. Your sister can't Bloodbend without a full moon, so she shouldn't be able to control a body. How did you work it?"

"Y'know what?" Lanko smirked. "Ask her."

"Feel like telling us?" Liandao turned to the older Waterbender. Meiko snorted and shook her head. "Figures." Liandao created an ice bridge over the section of walkway damaged by pebbles, and crossed. She made her way to the wall, stopping next to Meiko. "Sure you're not going to change your mind?"

"I'm sure," Meiko's lips twitched upwards. Liandao frowned. What advantage did Meiko think she had? Should Liandao be worried? Meiko was pinned to the wall, but her legs were free—Liandao took care of that, pulling water from the oasis to freeze Meiko's legs to the wall. For safety, Liandao froze Meiko's arms as well.

"You really should change your mind," Liandao advised, Waterbending a thin needle of water up. Meiko tensed, the smile disappearing from her lips.

"Anytime would be good, Zuzhou," Liandao heard Meiko mutter. Liandao blinked, trying to process the information. Who was Zuzhou?

That question was answered when something slammed into Liandao from behind.


	49. Attack

**It's not midnight. It's still Wednesday. I am updating. Yes.**

**Well, with that established, here's a chapter. I own neither Avatar nor Hetalia, and I really need to sleep now. x.x Enjoy...**

* * *

To say Liandao was surprised to have a teenaged boy attack her from behind was like saying that the Hundred Year War caused a little tension amongst the Four Nations. The Waterbender and boy crashed to the ground, Liandao's head hitting the ice with a crack. She let out a strangled cry, and tried to breathe in, but the weight of the newcomer on her back was crushing her ribs. In the ice, she could see a vague reflection of red clothing and

"I thought you couldn't enter the Oasis!" Lanko shouted indignantly. Liandao tried to push herself up, or at least unbalance the boy sitting on her back, but it was like he'd been rooted in place. Her flailing limbs weren't making a difference at all.

"Well, I can't set foot on the grass, but I can come into this area," the boy on Liandao's back shrugged. Liandao started to feel the cold even more acutely, her vision blurring. She needed air!

"Then why didn't you come in with us from the start?" Lanko sounded furious. Liandao was a little more concerned with her lack of air, and the fact that her limbs were starting to get heavy.

"Didn't think you'd need my help," the boy replied. Liandao had to get him off! She needed to breathe! But lead was flowing through her limbs, weighing them down, and her fight for breathe was a losing battle. Gray gathered at the edges of Liandao's vision, and the icy ground she was staring at started to blur.

"Who're you?" Hong asked in surprise. "And where'd you come from?" The boy on Liandao's back shifted his weight as he turned to look at Hong. Liandao stopped flailing, trying to conserve her energy. If the boy didn't get off her back soon…

The pressure on Liandao's back lifted, and she sucked in a breath. Rolling over, she saw the boy who'd jumped on her looking in Hong's direction, his face puzzled. Something about the boy nagged at Liandao's memory, but she was more interested in sucking in precious oxygen.

"I said, who are you?" Hong was irritated now—he was used to people answering when he spoke to them, either out of courtesy or intimidation by Hong's size. The boy stepped forward, then stopped.

"Have we met?" He asked, frowning. "I think we've met…" The boy glanced down at Liandao, eyebrows furrowed in thought. "Do you know where we've met?" Still breathing hard, Liandao shook her head no, clenching her fist to draw water to it. She tried to judge the distance between her hand and the boy, but the pain in her head kept her from thinking straight. Her concentration broke, and the water she had pulled to her hand spread out in a puddle. How had she not noticed this pain while being suffocated? …Suffocated, right, that might have been a little distracting.

"I've never seen you before," Hong scowled. "And I don't usually forget people I know. Are you Fire Nation? You have yellow eyes."

"Fire Nation? Yup!" The boy stepped forward eagerly. "I used to look a lot younger, until Gege told me that me being a kid was disturbing and it'd be easier if I looked older, or something like that, so I made myself big."

"How much younger?" Liandao looked up to see Hong rubbing his chin speculatively. "I mean, a few of your features are familiar, but you don't really put anyone in mind."

"I was six at the time I died," the boy offered. "That was at the end of summer." Six years old…end of summer…the words resonated in Liandao's head, but she couldn't recall what they meant. Something she knew, too, but it escaped her. She felt like she was grasping at fireflies.

"The end of summer?" Hong perked up. "Were you at my brother's party? Did you die there?"

"Um, would anyone care to explain what's going on?" Lanko called. "Or, better yet, bust me out so I can finish the job at hand? Anyone? No? Okay, I'll just stay here. With Duyao. Feeling very uncomfortable."

"You're the Avatar's brother?" The boy's eyes widened in realization. "Of course! You must be Hong! Li told me Huo's stories about you. That's why I recognized you, I saw you at the party."

"You were at the party? You know Li?" Hong lifted an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Mm…I might have told you too much already," the boy mused. His eyes narrowed. "Though to be honest, I should kill you if I want the others to be able to complete the mission properly. You'll just get in the way, like your friend here." The boy glanced down at Liandao. "Li always said to be merciful to an incapacitated enemy, but I don't think she agrees anymore."

"How…would you…" Liandao whispered, searching for the right words. She knew what she wanted to say, but the words kept trying to escape her, and she had to pause to recall them. "How…would you know…what Li…?"

"I know her quite well," the boy brushed it off. "And I've been keeping an eye on her. Or, I was, until she was sent here. Then I lost track of where her soul was, and it's really annoying trying to find it without any way to trace it."

"Why do you care about Li?" Hong challenged.

"Silly, why wouldn't I?" the boy laughed. "She's Li!"

"_No_, I thought she was Yumiko!" Hong rolled his eyes. The boy frowned, but his eyes didn't show any emotion. Liandao stared up at him, wondering what was wrong with his eyes. He looked pretty normal—his skin was pale, like most of the Fire Nation's population, and his brown hair was just as typical. His eyes marked him as a likely member of the upper class, or possibly an illegitimate descendant of some noble family.

Wait a minute. Liandao squinted, trying to think through the pain in her head. The boy's hair was a familiar shade, his facial features—the jaw and nose in particular—reminiscent of someone Liandao knew well. His eyes even seemed familiar, similar to those of a person Liandao remembered only vaguely. Who could it have…?

A face flashed through Liandao's mind, one she knew well enough to make her wonder how she'd missed the resemblance. Another face occurred to her, mostly vague, but the eyes—the part that had first captured Liandao's attention—were perfectly detailed.

So obvious, now that she realized it. How could she have missed it before?

"_He was only six…and I left him alone in that place. I left him unprotected, and he died. Why did I have to leave him alone?"_

"You're…" Liandao breathed, shock and pain keeping her from finishing the sentence. Both Hong and the boy looked down at Liandao, surprised. "I…I know who you…"

"Of course," Meiko chuckled. Liandao jerked, having forgotten the enemy was still pinned to the wall mere feet away. "It makes sense, when you think about," Meiko continued. "I didn't consider it, but it makes quite a bit of sense."

"Whatcha meeeean?" Hong pouted, not enjoying being out of the loop. It was surprising, how childish he could seem when he didn't get his way. Liandao almost expected him to stamp his foot when he was in this mood. His pose was relaxed, arms crossed, with his weight on his heels.

"Forget it, buddy," Lanko called, still frozen up to his neck. "They're not going to give any straight answers until we've figured it out for ourselves."

"Ooh, I know how that goes," Hong rolled his eyes in exasperation. "The rest of the team does that a lot. Me and Li are usually the ones in the dark. Mao joins us sometimes. It's not very fun."

"Never is," Lanko agreed.

"Perhaps we should stop talking?" Meiko suggested. "I understand our boys are easily distracted, but we have spent the past…oh, half year?…trying to kill each other."

"Oooh, that's right," the boy recalled.

"Exactly," Meiko forced a smile onto her face. "So, Zuzhou, if you might free me, my brother, and Duyao, so we can complete our mission?"

"Sure," Zuzhou shrugged, and took a step towards Meiko.

There was a zinging noise, and a loud crack. Zuzhou paused, eyes sliding sideways to note the marble-sized hole in the ice wall a few inches in front of his face. Meiko's eyes had widened in surprise, but she relaxed after a moment.

"I always forget about those pebbles you keep in your pockets," Meiko chuckled, letting her eyelids droop so she could look up at Hong through her eyelashes.

"Everybody does," Hong agreed. His demeanor had changed completely—the immature set of his lips and brows had hardened into an intense, emotionless stare, and his weight had shifted forward to the balls of his feet. Every muscle in his body was tense, poised for action. He was holding his right hand palm-up in front of him, flexing the fingers to turn three large pebbles around in a circle.

Liandao flicked her eyes from the boy—Zuzhou, though that wasn't his real name and she knew it—to Meiko. Could she take one out before they could take her out? Meiko was immobile, but Liandao didn't know if Zuzhou could be harmed at all. He was supposed to be dead, a dead _child_, but he was here and an adult—that spoke to some sort of supernatural force at work. Taking out Meiko would take out a huge threat. But Zuzhou would definitely kill Liandao if she killed Meiko, and Zuzhou might ultimately prove to be a greater threat than Meiko…

"Your friend appeared from nowhere," Hong shifted his torso sideways, giving Zuzhou less of a target in case the boy chose to attack. Zuzhou noticed, and his lips twitched into a brief smile.

"No, I appeared from the shadows," Zuzhou corrected Hong. "There's always a 'somewhere' to appear from. If something appears from nowhere, that implies it did not exist before, or has not existed at some point. I've always existed, so I didn't come from nowhere."

Hong blinked. "I have no idea what you just said," the Earthbender confessed. Liandao eased herself up onto her elbows, wincing as her head throbbed in protest.

Zuzhou twisted his lips up in a smile. "Good."

Liandao didn't think she could have followed the next sequence of events even if she had been thinking properly. Zuzhou seemed to turn into a blur of red and gold and pale skin, with a patch of dark brown on top. He ran forward, _onto the water_, and rammed into Hong, grabbing the Earthbender and spinning him around. Hong let out a cry of surprise, which Zuzhou ignored as he pulled Hong's arms behind his back and tugged Hong's sash off. Several deft movements, and Hong's arms had been tied behind him, his robe hanging loosely off of his powerfully-built body.

The whole sequence took perhaps a second to complete. "Wha…what…?" Hong stuttered, taken aback. His eyes were wider than Liandao had ever seen him, whites showing around all sides of the irises. All the color had drained from his face. It contrasted with the dark green and black of his Dai Li uniform, giving the illusion that his skin had turned snow-white.

"Now," Zuzhou looked at Liandao and smiled, "do I need to tie you up too?"

The Waterbending master gaped at Zuzhou, starting to really feel _afraid_ of him. She could hear the steady beat of her heart in her ears, feel the pulse of her blood flowing through her head. Could this really be the spirit of a six-year-old kid? There was no malice in his smile, no emotion in his eyes, nothing to indicate he had a soul. Nothing he had done was an overt threat, but Liandao was certain that he would kill her without hesitation if he felt it was called for. Liandao could see his resemblance to Li, but only because she was looking for it: if she hadn't known who Zuzhou really was, his features would be easily dismissible as generically Fire Nation.

"Great, you've got Hong tied up," Lanko bobbed his head, and cracked his chin on the ice. "Ow…! Okay, so, Zhou, care to, I dunno, _get us out of the freezing water_?" A note of worry touched Lanko's voice as he added, "I'm starting to lose the feeling in my extremities."

"The water is very cold," Duyao agreed.

Liandao's eyes flickered from Zuzhou and Hong to Lanko and Duyao, then to Meiko. Her head still hurt, but the adrenaline was letting her focus on the matter at hand. Zuzhou had said he couldn't go onto the grass of the Oasis, and after seeing his speed Liandao doubted if she could so much as touch him. Lanko and Duyao weren't Benders, and thus presented a lesser threat than Meiko did with her Bloodbending. If Liandao could move fast enough…

She acted the moment her plan formed in her mind. Pushing herself off her elbows, Liandao gathered some water to her hand and solidified it into a six-inch blade of ice. Her head swam as Liandao got her feet under her and straightened, raising her head more than four feet in a second. Years of training helped Liandao orient herself immediately, and she raised her hands, positioning the one covered in ice to strike at Meiko's vitals.

But it seemed Zuzhou had been anticipating her attack, because suddenly Liandao was spinning, her head burning with pain at the sudden movement. It felt like her brain was being rattled around in her skull, bouncing off the sides and bruising itself all over. She didn't realize she was falling until she hit ice, and fell through it into bitterly cold water. Zuzhou had thrown her into the ice she'd used to freeze Lanko and Duyao in place, breaking it.

Shock at the cold made Liandao suck in an instinctive breath, but instead of air she found water. Gagging on it—at least it was warmer than the ocean, a thankful side effect of being so close to the tropical air of the Spirit Oasis—Liandao realized she had no idea which way was up. Things were hitting her, which some distant part of her brain recognized as Lanko and Meiko's legs, but Liandao wasn't sure where they were coming from.

Was there light? She couldn't see any—the stars and moon reflected off the ice at the bottom of the pool, and the dark sky blurred with the sides and bottom of the pool. Torches were never placed in the Oasis, for fear of a fire, so the area behind the wall was lit only by moonlight. Liandao strained her eyes for the barest hint of movement, but the water logging her lungs was a more pressing problem, and a very distracting one.

Mostly on instinct, Liandao kicked her legs and swam in the direction she thought might be up. Her movements were sloppy, but accentuating them with Waterbending helped speed her up.

_Please, please, let this be the right direction…_ Liandao prayed to the Moon and Ocean Spirits. She forced the last of the water from her lungs, but with nothing to refill them, had to clamp her mouth shut. An ache started deep in her chest. Stretching her arms out in front of her, she hoped she hit air soon—!

Her hand hit a solid surface, and Liandao could have cried. Was it the bottom of the pool? One of the sides? She had five directions left to try, and only one would take her to the air she needed. Water was soaking into her thick under-layer of seaweed fiber clothing, weighing her down just enough that she wouldn't float to the surface automatically.

The ache in her chest intensified, and Liandao realized that she couldn't afford to make a mistake on her next attempt to find the surface…

* * *

Hong watched in horror as Liandao was tossed at the water, feeling horribly, cruelly helpless. His hands were securely tied behind his back, and Zuzhou was moving too fast for Hong to track. The cold air was snaking into his loose Dai Li robes, using the gaps created from the loss of his sash. He tried to ignore it, but the North Pole _was_ sort of cold.

Lanko started thrashing the moment the ice holding him and Duyao in place broke. Despite Duyao's best efforts at keeping him from going under, his head bobbed beneath the surface several times, limbs flailing in futile attempts to keep himself afloat. Somehow he reached the side ledge opposite Hong, and clambered up, then sprawled out on his back. Duyao pulled herself out of the water and stood on the ledge, glancing down at Lanko to make sure he was going to live.

It occurred to Hong that Duyao's soaked anorak was clinging to her body quite nicely, despite its bulk. Her pants were close-fitting, and thinner than Hong would have recommended for the weather, but they showed the gentle curves of her knees and calves well.

Hm. Too bad she was an enemy: Hong would have asked her to train with him in a heartbeat.

There was a loud crack, and Hong looked over to see Zuzhou deliver a sideways chop with one hand to the ice pinning Meiko's right arm to the wall. It shattered, and pieces tinkled to the ground like broken glass.

"Thank you," Meiko smiled as she shook her arm to ease the tension in it. With a steady exhale, she melted the rest of the ice pinning her into water, and it flowed back to the pool. Liandao was in the water still, but the disturbed surface made it hard to pick out her shape. The dark didn't help any: while moonlight was usually enough to see by, a few ominous-looking clouds from earlier in the day had begun to cover the moon, restricting the available light.

Could he wiggle his hands free? All he really needed was one: with that, he could use the pebbles in his pockets to Earthbend, or maybe if he went back onto the Oasis's grassy area…actually, he could probably use just his feet to Earthbend, if he were on land and against an opponent on the same ground as him. Hong began to inch towards the bridge to the Oasis, trying to keep an eye on Zuzhou and the pool both.

Part of Hong wanted to jump into the water and rescue Liandao, but he knew he couldn't. With his hands tied behind his back like they were, he wouldn't be able to swim, only sink. Earthbenders swam as well as, well, rocks, and yes, he was aware of the irony. Liandao was a Waterbender, and while her swimming might not have been the best, she was unrestrained and had the ability to move water with her mind. It was safe to assume she could take care of herself for now.

Meiko looked directly at Hong just as he glanced over at her. Their eyes locked, and despite himself Hong felt a silly grin spread over his face. She was pretty, he couldn't help it! He was noticing pretty girls a lot more now than he used to five years ago. Something about the age of twelve had changed how he viewed the world—girls in particular.

"You don't have to be involved," Meiko told Hong. He snapped his mind to the present, tearing it away from the distractions of Meiko's prettiness, and focused on what she said. "The Tóngyī Shìjiè will still pardon you for your actions against us if you cease all hostilities. Do you really want to die for your brother and his friends?"

Her words made Hong frown. "My friends," he corrected her. "They're my friends too. D'you think I'd run around with a bunch of people I don't like for six whole months?"

"He has a point," Lanko called. Hong nodded briefly in Lanko's direction, eyes still fixed on Meiko's.

"Your friends, his friends, do you still want to die?" Meiko pressed. "We don't intend to kill all of them. Just those of royal blood, and that only if they refuse to join the Tóngyī Shìjiè."

"Jia will never join," Hong reminded Meiko. "Or Mao, or Kai, or Li…" he trailed off, eyes flickering towards the Oasis briefly. "None of them will join you," Hong finished firmly. "They're all devoted to their Nations and their people. That's five people there."

"You only said four names," Lanko pointed out.

"If you want to kill Li, you're going to have to kill Ru first," Hong sighed. "Though if Li had her way, it wouldn't be like that…anyways, it's a given that if you want to kill Li you want to kill Ru too. Five of my friends, right there."

"Team Avatar has fourteen regular members," Meiko shrugged. "A large group, to be sure, but I suppose you would have had more if the Revolution had begun just a few hours later."

Hong had to admit the last part was true—everyone in Team Avatar had been attendees at Huo's smaller, secret birthday party, in the cellar of the Jasmine Dragon Tea Shop, which Hong and Huo's father ran. When the Tóngyī Revolution began, Li's brother Aizo had brought news and helped them escape through the Crystal Catacombs. Despite being separated not long after, they had all reunited within a month, and ever since then they'd stuck together.

Well…since then to about four days ago…

Back to the matter at hand, Hong told himself. "They're my friends," he scowled at Meiko. "I don't let people I love die."

"Love is a strong word," Meiko noted, raising an eyebrow.

"Like hate," Lanko interjected, and laughed at his own joke. "Get it? Because when I was little people always told me hate was a strong word…and not to use it…heh…" He paused, and looked from Meiko to Hong. "Geez, why so serious…"

"Strong words for strong feelings," Hong said firmly. His eyes darted to the water. It had been several minutes now…why hadn't Liandao surfaced? Had she come up already, silently? But surely the wind would have been knocked out of her when she hit the water! She should have come up spluttering and gasping for air!

Meiko noticed his gaze, and smirked. "I do think Zuzhou's taken care of an annoying problem," she crooned, slipping an arm around Zuzhou's shoulders. Hong really needed to ask someone who Zuzhou really was. The young man—he looked like he was around Hong's age, although Hong himself didn't look his age. People always assumed tall people were older than they were, and because Hong had inherited his father's strong facial features…

Hong's teeth gritted. If Liandao was drowning, or had already drowned…he had a problem with that.

Unseen to the Tóngyī assassins, Hong had found a sharp bit of ice on the wall behind him, and had been surreptitiously rubbing his sash against it. He felt the fibers fray thanks to the dirt that had been mashed into his clothing in the course of his travels, and prayed he could get them weak enough to snap before he had to defend himself.

There goes another thread…

"Stop playing around, Meiko," Zuzhou blurred, and was suddenly a foot to one side of where he had been. "You came here to do a job. There's nothing to stop you from completing it."

Meiko wavered for a second, balance compromised by Zuzhou's sudden action. She sighed theatrically, and ran an ungloved hand through her short black hair.

"I'd hoped to savor this time," she pronounced dramatically, "when one of our greatest threats to unity was vanquished. But very well. I'll take my victory quickly." With a wave of her hand, Meiko froze a path over the ice, leading directly to the Oasis. She walked forward, her gait determined, pulling up a thin tendril of ice from the water beneath her. It froze into a shining needle of ice, hovering in the air a few inches from Meiko's palm.

It would be really helpful if the sash would break…

Yes! Hong felt the last section of thread snap, weakening it enough for him to break. Wrenching his hands apart, Hong tore his sash in half. It fluttered to the ground.

The moment his hands were free, Hong was moving, running for the Oasis. He had walked halfway down the side ledge to see who the intruders were, and now he regretted moving so far away from the safety of the earth. With surprising speed for someone so large, Hong now darted towards the Oasis, hand reaching inside his sleeve to find his collection of pebbles.

A blur crossed Hong's path, and suddenly something hit the Earthbender's gut with crippling force. Hong doubled over, automatically retching. He suddenly realized just how bone-chillingly _cold_ it was. His stomach emptied, though there hadn't been much in it to begin with.

"That wasn't very smart," Zuzhou informed Hong, grabbing the front of Hong's robes. With surprising strength for a skinny teenager, Zuzhou lifted Hong into the air, and grinned at him. The moonlight reflected off of Zuzhou's dull yellow eyes, and Hong would have sworn there was some sort of answering glow from deep within the eyes themselves.

From the corner of his eye, Hong noticed Meiko had stopped walking, and was watching Hong and Zuzhou. At least he'd delayed her! Now, he just had to get to the Oasis so he could keep her or any of her friends from killing Li…

…Hong was really starting to worry about Liandao.

"Woah!" Lanko yelped suddenly, accompanied by a splatting sound. Zuzhou tensed, head turning to look at his ally. Hong managed to twist his head enough to see as well, and was tempted to grin. Lanko had been pinned against the wall by ice, and Duyao had received similar treatment. Since obviously Meiko wasn't going to incapacitate her own allies…

"Lanko!" Meiko cried, taking a step towards him before realizing she was on the edge of her ice bridge. With a "tch!", Meiko backed herself up the center, ice swirling up around her feet to hold her in place. The Waterbender glared down at the dark water underneath her, eyes roving back and forth, searching for the threat.

The grip on Hong's front tightened, and for once he regretted his uniform being fitted so well to him. An angry hiss escaped Zuzhou's mouth, and Hong glanced down at him. Their eyes locked: Hong's dark brown eyes were amused, Zuzhou's dull yellow eyes showing the barest flickers of life and anger.

It was a standoff, and both knew it. Meiko would have to deal with the threat of a possible attack before turning her back on the pool of water and walking to the Oasis. Zuzhou could watch her back, but unless he found something else to tie Hong up with, or killed him, Hong might make it to the Oasis while Zuzhou and Meiko dealt with Liandao. If Liandao could join him on the Oasis, or if she got there before him, she would have a position of strength to attack from. That Zuzhou had said he couldn't set foot on the Oasis made it all the better, because even if the guards were busy looking for a killer, Meiko and her team would be hard pressed to deal with two Benders that were ready and waiting for them.

Hong grinned. "Your move," he taunted.

Zuzhou looked like he was ready to murder Hong then and there, but something held him back. Going on the hope that Zuzhou wouldn't kill him, Hong pressed his advantage.

"If you let me down, take the Tóngyī members, and leave, we won't hunt you down while you're in the City or surrounding areas," Hong offered. "We're friends with the Chief's sister, so we can make that promise. You should take it, before Liandao freezes Meiko to a wall and we both go after you."

Was that hesitation Hong saw? Zuzhou's eyes betrayed nothing, but his posture, the way he distributed his weight…it all added up to hesitation, didn't it? Hong hoped so—if Zuzhou decided he wanted to kill Hong, well, Zuzhou did have the advantage of speed and strength. There were any number of placed on a human body that one could strike to cause instant death, and Hong knew most of them. If Zuzhou decided to hit just one…

There was a loud splash, and Meiko shrieked. Hong and Zuzhou both looked up at once, and saw Meiko being flung through the air, straight at the two boys. Zuzhou dropped Hong onto his feet and did that blur thing, reappearing next to Lanko and Duyao. Meiko collided with Hong, and both were slammed against the wall.

"Ow…" Hong moaned, slumping down. His back had hit the wall in just the worst way, and now it ached like he'd spent the night sleeping on lumpy ice. "Wazzat for…?"

"Don't be a baby," Liandao surfaced a few feet away from Hong, a cocky half-grin on her face. She held up a hand and shot it forward, pulling a tendril of water out of the pool and wrapping it around Hong's ankle. With a flick to her left, she sent Hong flying through the air, in the direction of the Oasis.

"Wheee!" Hong spread his arms out on instinct. Normally he didn't like flying, but this was fun!

The dark green grass of the Oasis was coming up fast. Hong tucked himself into a ball, braced for impact, and waited. A second later, he hit earth, rolling forward and springing to his feet. His back protested the action, and the Earthbender hissed in pain. Who knew Liandao could throw people with so much force? Albeit, she did have her Waterbending to help her…

Liandao landed lithely on the grass next to Hong, and grinned at him. "You okay?" She asked.

"No," Hong grumbled. He straightened, despite his back's protests, and eyed the surprised Zuzhou and Meiko. "So, what happened with you?"

"I nearly drowned, until I surfaced," Liandao shrugged. "It was pretty quiet. Ming's taught me a little healing, so I fixed my head as best I could and waited for an opportunity to attack."

"It's going to take a lot more than Waterbending Healing to fix whatever's wrong with your head," Hong observed. Liandao scowled at him. "You know it's true."

Liandao chose not to answer, and instead turned her attention to Meiko and Zuzhou. Meiko had climbed to her feet, and was glaring at the two Benders on the Oasis. Hong was tempted to wave, but thought better of it.

His eyes darted to Lanko and Duyao, and he frowned. "Liandao," he murmured, just loud enough for her to hear, "bring Lanko and Duyao to the Oasis, and freeze them just inside the boundary."

"Why…oh," Liandao realized what Hong had in mind. "Of course." She raised her hand and made a fist, then quickly pulled it to her shoulder. The ice pinning Lanko and Duyao to the wall melted just enough to cover them in water, and they flew to the Oasis.

"Whoa!" Lanko yelped. "Sis!"

Meiko's eyes widened briefly, then narrowed. She assumed an octopus stance, and pulled up her "tentacles" from the pool at her feet. As Lanko and Duyao were frozen to the ground at the front of the Oasis (assuming the north side was at the back), Meiko stretched out an arm, a tentacle pushing forward towards Liandao.

Before Hong could blink, Liandao pulled up a sheet of water, freezing it into ice. Meiko's tentacle hit it, and both the tentacle and wall splashed back into the pool.

"Get my brother and Duyao!" Meiko yelled to Zuzhou, irritated.

"I can't, remember?" Zuzhou pointed out with infuriating calmness. "They're on the Oasis. This is all your fault, by the way," Zuzhou narrowed his eyes dangerously, eyes shifting to the side of his sockets to glare at Meiko. "You took too long, and delayed us. People are supposed to fix their own mistakes."

"Fine, then!" Meiko threw up her hands, taking the water from her octopus stance with her.

Hong felt his lips curl up. Meiko was frustrated, not thinking straight, and that made it all the easier to beat her.

"Looks like the only time you can take us on is when the moon's full," Hong taunted. "Do you really rely on your Bloodbending that much?"

Meiko's face tightened in anger. She took a meaningful step forward, but Hong had pulled out his pebbles and was ready. Three small rocks, no larger than a child's fingernail, hit the ledge in front of Meiko, and she stumbled backwards in surprise.

"Nice one," Liandao whispered in compliment. Hong chuckled, using his stomach to make the noise deeper than it should be. "Aaand you're back to being creepy."

"Ohhh yeaaaah," Hong spoke from his stomach again, throwing his voice even deeper.

Liandao smiled and turned her attention to the two opponents still standing. "One of you can't set foot on this island," she called, "and the other can't face two powerful Benders like us without her Bloodbending. Since you've got a bit less than a month to the next full moon, I don't think you'll be able to beat us tonight."

"And what would you like to suggest?" Meiko inquired, voice falsely sweet.

"Leave," Liandao held out her hand. "I'll let you take Lanko and Duyao as well." She raised her hand, mimicking a glowjellyfish's up-down swimming motions. The two ice-encased Tóngyī agents rose into the air, hovering uncertainly when Liandao stopped moving her arm.

Meiko looked at her companions, then up at the sky. The moon was still nearly full, but the thin crescent slice missing from it kept her from Bloodbending. Hong saw her jaw muscles tighten, and guessed she was grinding her teeth together.

"No," Zuzhou said firmly. Meiko started, and looked at him with wide eyes. "Go ahead, kill them if you want. We're here to kill Li. I'm not leaving until you've killed everyone I came here with." Hong thought he saw a glint of mania in the boy's eye. "Even then, I won't leave until sunrise makes me."

Sunrise. Hong filed that information away, in case he needed it later. Did it mean Zuzhou couldn't be in sunlight? Was there just something about the rising sun that drove him away for a little bit? Or did he have something else he needed to do then?

"Zuzhou, my only advantage against them is my Bloodbending," Meiko reminded her companion, a trace of panic in her voice. "It would be pointless to sacrifice ourselves, when we could leave and return another day. She could die before the healing is completed, even. Please, we should take her offer—"

"No!" Zuzhou whirled on Meiko. Faster than the human eye could follow, he thrust his hand at her stomach, the force driving her back against the wall. She cried out at the impact, and Hong saw her hands grasp at the ice.

"Nngh…stop it…" Meiko pleaded. Her voice sounded strange, like there was liquid in her throat. Something dark trickled from her mouth.

"I helped you enter the city so you could kill Li," Zuzhou hissed, leaning in so that his face was inches away from Meiko's. "If you can't even do that, I should kill you now." Hong started to regret the amazing acoustics of the Spirit Oasis's niche—he could hear Meiko's small cries of pain perfectly, and they made his stomach uneasy. Fighting someone trying to kill him was one thing, but to see a woman who had been about to surrender attacked by her own ally…

Hong glanced back at the Oasis. Ru and Huo sat lotus-style by the water's edge, exactly as they had been when the attack began. Liandao's "artwork" still decorated Huo's face. In the Oasis proper, Li was still lying unmoving, like she was…asleep. He wouldn't think the other word, the one that sprang to mind even now.

Movement in the Oasis attracted Hong's attention, and he watched two monochrome fish—one white, one black, both with a dot of the other's color on their forehead—circle each other. Something tugged at his memory…part of a story his mother told him when he was young and didn't want to go to sleep…

"_Circling each other in an eternal dance, the Moon and Ocean, Tui and La, were aware of the approaching Fire Nation fleet, but refrained from acting. They were aware, perhaps, of what needed to transpire before the attack was done…"_

Circling…an eternal dance…

"Hong, stop looking at the fish and help me figure out what to do!" Liandao pinched his arm, and he shrieked—a very manly shriek, of course. Totally not high-pitched and girly, nope.

"Why? Can't we just wait them out?" Hong shot back.

"Do you want to explain to the Chief why we sullied his people's precious spiritual center by letting someone get murdered by an evil spirit here?" Liandao's eyes flickered to Meiko, still pinned to the wall by her "ally" Zuzhou. "That would taint the Oasis' waters forever…we can't let it happen. So help me figure out how to get them to leave!"

"Water Whip Zuzhou, then!"

"He'll just get mad! Then he might kill her before I can do anything else!"

"Hmm…" Hong rubbed his chin. A distant part of him noted that he needed a shave. The rest of him was still thinking about his mother's story, and how Zuzhou had said he couldn't set foot on the Oasis.

Was it possible? He should make sure before telling Liandao.

"Hey, Zuzhou," Hong cupped his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice, ensuring it couldn't be missed. "Why can't you go onto the Oasis?"

Zuzhou glanced up, everything in his face but his eyes displaying annoyance. "They won't let me, obviously," he grumbled. "Or I'd have killed Li when she first got here."

They? "They?" Hong called, careful not to let his growing excitement show in his voice.

"The Moon and Ocean," Zuzhou rolled his eyes. "Wherever the grass grows, their power forms a barrier that repels evil spirits. I can't cross the barrier."

"Okay," Hong couldn't resist a huge grin. "Thanks!"

"I know that look," Liandao warned Hong. "It means you have an idea. Am I going to like this idea? Will it even be relevant to this situation?"

"Maaaaaaybe," Hong drew out the word, savoring his idea. He turned his back on Zuzhou and Meiko, much to Liandao's surprise, and walked over to the Oasis. Kneeling, he brushed his fingers against the surface.

"What are you…?" Liandao trailed off, shaking her head. "Whatever." She returned her attention to Meiko, who had managed to whisper something that satisfied Zuzhou enough for him to release her. Now the Waterbender had fallen to her knees, clutching her stomach and hacking up blood.

"Hey," Hong swirled his finger, creating ripples. "Tui…La. There's an evil spirit here, and it wants the girl in your waters dead. It has a woman it's forcing to do its will, even though they were sorta allies at first. Help us out here: banish the evil spirit, so it can't do any harm." The fish continued to circle each other, ignoring Hong. Maybe he shouldn't have flicked that pebble at them… "Come on. He wants to defile your home. Are you going to let it?" Still no response. "Are you going to let an innocent girl die?"

For a second, the fish continued to swim in their dance, and Hong thought he might have been wrong. What if these were just normal koi? Could the Moon and Ocean be something else?

Then the black fish swam away from its partner, leaving the white fish to circle alone. Hong remained still, and the black fish latched its mouth onto his finger. It didn't hurt: the koi didn't seem to have teeth.

"Er…is that a yes?" Hong started to feel foolish.

Well, it's not a no.

Hong almost jumped at the strange voice. "TALKING FISHY!"

"What are you _doing_ over there?" Liandao shouted.

A pity my partner is guiding your friends through the Spirit World after the girl: Moon is really much more suited to this sort of thing than I, the koi (that was apparently the Ocean Spirit) confessed. But I can always try. So, you want me to expand the barrier and banish that thing threatening the woman?

"That…would be helpful," Hong nodded slowly. "But…you can talk?"

I'm the Spirit of the Ocean. Why wouldn't I be able to talk?

"Well…" Hong hesitated. "You are a fish."

I could turn into a gigantic, vaguely koi-like monster, if it makes you feel better about me talking. Though, I'd have to borrow your brother to do that.

"No no, I just need you to banish the evil spirit," Hong shook his head. "That'll be enough. Though it'd be cool if you turned into a huge koi-monster later…"

All right, Ocean sounded cheerful. What will you give me in return for me banishing the evil spirit?

"Give…?" Hong's mind blanked. This part was new.

Yes, give, Ocean agreed. I'll need some sort of sacrifice to boost my power. I don't suppose you have that delicious white bread the Chief's wife brings me?

"No, I don't," Hong blinked. "What would work?"

Oh, something of personal value is preferred, though something of monetary value will do in a pinch. Personal value is better, because isn't that more in line with the meaning of a sacrifice than anything else? Ocean paused. It seems there's something of personal value to you up your sleeve. That would do quite nicely.

Hong hesitated, but reached his free hand into his other sleeve and pulled out a small unicorn figurine. His mother had given it to him when he was five: he'd treasured it ever since. Rubbing a thumb over the worn pewter, he wondered if he was really willing to give it up to save himself and his friends.

Well, that should go without saying, shouldn't it?

There was a splash as the unicorn dropped into the pool, and if fish could smile, the Ocean Spirit did. Barrier expansion in five, then, he informed Hong. The fish let go of Hong's finger and swam back to its partner. Hong straightened, turning to see what had happened while his back was to the others.

Meiko had managed to stand by bracing herself against the wall, Zuzhou standing impassively behind her. Liandao was in a defensive stance, ready to block or redirect any attack that came.

"I hope that muttering to yourself was for a good reason," Liandao hissed over her shoulder, not taking her eyes off of Meiko.

"Well…" Hong started to speak. He was cut off when the barrier expanded.

It was immediately noticeable, even though physically nothing seemed to change. There was a sudden sense of something unseen, something Hong had felt but never consciously noticed until that moment, growing larger. You couldn't see its edges, but for some reason Hong knew exactly where they were as they pushed out. A mixture of terror and surprise flashed over Zuzhou's face before the barrier's edge reached him. And when it did…he vanished.

No sound. No dramatic lightshow, or fading into darkness. Nothing streamed out behind Zuzhou. He just disappeared, as if he had never been there.

Meiko squeaked in alarm, flinching away from the empty space Zuzhou had occupied. Liandao recovered from the strangeness of the barrier's expansion and pulled up a thick cylinder of ice, pushing it forward towards Meiko. The ice hit her in the solar plexus, knocking her out.

"Sis!" Lanko, quiet up until then, shouted. "You—! If you've hurt her—!"

"Relax, I just put her to sleep," Liandao sighed. She unfroze Lanko and Duayo, looming over them as they sat up and rubbed their sore muscles. "Now. I'm going to allow you three to leave—there's a stairway behind the Oasis that leads up to the ice fields. You're a tough bunch, so I'm betting you make it. And let me make myself clear," Liandao's voice dropped to a growl, "that this is not me having mercy on you. This is not weakness. What it is, is me being fed up with you and hoping you'll make my life a bit easier by getting out of here. I'll tell everyone you escaped—they'll believe that. But the next time we meet…" Hong shuddered as Liandao's expression darkened. "Next time we meet…I won't let you walk away so easily. My friend nearly died because of your sister. Letting her live now is my way of respecting this place."

Lanko gulped. "Got it," he nodded, voice hoarse.

Hong supervised them as they picked up Meiko and went to the back of the Oasis, then started to climb. When they were halfway up, Liandao collapsed a section of the ledge behind them, keeping them from changing their minds. They disappeared over the top, and Hong turned to raise an eyebrow to Liandao.

"You stay here while I go tell someone what happened," she ordered him wearily. He made a sound of acquiescence, and sat between Ru and Huo by the Oasis as Liandao left.

The Ocean Spirit swam past, and Hong could have sworn it winked at him. Giving it a smile in return, Hong glanced at the bottom of the pool where he had dropped his unicorn figurine. It was gone.

His gaze dropped to the girl lying in the water, and Hong felt a twinge of worry. Meiko had mentioned the chance of Li dying before her healing was complete…could she really…?

Purely on impulse, Hong leaned forward, his hand slipping into the warm water to brush Li's forehead. "Don't die," he told her.

* * *

Li was lying back on her bed, hands untied from the bedpost so she could get comfortable. She was staring at the dirty ceiling, wondering if she should sleep. On the one hand, it might be a weakness for her captors to exploit. On the other hand, she was dead-tired, and knew that staying awake too long would compromise both her mental state and her body's ability to fight off disease or infection.

Her leg kept throbbing. Could she ignore it? Yes, she thought she could…

Maybe…just a few minutes…

Fingers brushed her forehead, and Li sat upright in alarm. Her head turned left, right, back and forth, frantically searching for who was in her room. But there was no one, and she could still feel the fingers on her cheek.

"_Don't die,"_ she heard. That was…Hong's voice?

The fingers were gone, and Li raised a hand to her forehead tentatively. Didn't feel like anything was wrong…

Don't die, Hong had told her. Li blinked her eyes against rapidly-forming tears.

Hah, don't die. She was already trying to do that, thank you! Hearing it from Hong…well, thinking she heard it from Hong…

_Hearing voices is an early sign of mental instability_, Ru-voice recalled for her. Li froze—there was also that.

Mental instability. _"Don't die."_ Prisoner, in a world not her own. Lying to people who had only helped her. Everything seemed to mount up on Li, and her throat closed off painfully as she choked back a sob.

She just wanted to go home…she didn't want to die here…

Li curled up into a ball and cried.


	50. Move

**Helloooooo. I swear I'm not dead. I've just been in a bit of a funk, since with the new Legend of Korra information I now know that lots of what I've been writing is very, very uncanon. This does not sit well with me, and thus I've been neglecting Fire Lily. Very sorry. V.V **

**I've also found, to my great surprise, that I have a life, and that's been eating up lots of my time as well. My stories have suffered as a result, and I apologize. Here's a new chapter for you: hope you enjoy, and keep in mind that I might decide to rewrite Fire Lily entirely all too soon. **

**I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, anything in its franchise, or Hetalia: Axis Powers and anything from that franchise.**

* * *

America checked his M4 assault rifle one last time, ensuring it was clean. He put it back together slowly, examining each piece as he replaced it, making sure everything was in order. A jam in the field could spell disaster for both himself and the team, and they couldn't afford to make mistakes. Their bosses were already grudging them the chance to go out and look for Li: America couldn't afford to let them change their minds.

He glanced up at the others in his team. Iran and Iraq were whispering over their weapons, comparing them. America's government was supplying everything the seven-man (and woman, considering Israel and Pakistan were of the fairer sex) team would need, from weapons to transportation to MREs, so the Middle Eastern Nations had to familiarize themselves with the foreign equipment so they didn't make mistakes.

"I wish we had time to practice with these more," Afghanistan muttered. He checked his M9 pistol, pushing the cartridge in and putting the safety on. Holding it at eye level, he checked the sights, then placed it in its holster at his hip.

"At least you guys get more than a stupid handgun," Pakistan grumbled, familiarizing herself with the mechanisms of her own M9. Her backpack was on the bench next to her, larger and bulkier than the others' backpacks: she'd stuffed it as full as she could with medical supplies, then added a duffel of extras to the group's army truck.

Israel, in the driver's seat of the truck, glanced back through the open window that allowed her a line of sight into the cab. "Saudi Arabia, are you sure you don't want to be the driver?" she asked, anxious. Her sand-and-tan BDUs fit her loosely, making it hard to tell at first glance she was a woman. Both her and Pakistan had gathered their long hair into tight ponytails, then wound them atop their heads and placed army caps over their hair: as a result, their hair looked short and slicked back from the front.

Saudi Arabia glanced up from his weapon, shook his head, and looked back down. As the second-in-command of the group, he had taken it upon himself to inspect and choose everyone's weapons, leaving his own for last.

Outside the truck, American military personnel—Army, Marine, and Air Force—were milling around making preparations for their own assignments. Routine patrols, protective forces for scientists and civilians…America thought he saw a few Special Ops squads as well, but refrained from commenting. While he trusted the other Middle Eastern Nations enough to go on this mission with them, he wasn't about to tell them when he saw a team of Special Ops getting ready to head out.

"When do we leave?" Pakistan called to America.

"Three pm," he replied, looking down at his watch to check the time. It read 1:56. "About an hour left. You should probably use the bathroom while we're here, there won't be a chance in the field until we stop for the night."

"Do we really have to sleep in the truck?" Iran grumbled. He gave the wooden bench he was sitting on a venomous glare, the kind you would direct at someone who'd murdered your entire family. "This is going to be so uncomfortable…"

"If we have to stop for you to pray five times a day, you can sleep on a wooden bench," Israel shouted over her shoulder. "And we do have sleeping bags. Just be happy the benches aren't as lumpy and hard as the ground."

"He just wants to complain so America knows he doesn't _have_ to be here," Iraq chuckled. "Speaking of complaining, do we really have to eat these MREs until the mission's over? They taste disgusting!"

"Hey! I'm giving up burgers for this!" America pointed out. "The least you can do is eat my MREs with me!"

Sensing a pointless fight was about to break out, Saudi Arabia interrupted. "Isn't it about time we go over our intelligence, and make sure everyone knows the plan?" He pulled a map out from under his seat, and held it up. "I've plotted the route Iran's strategist suggested, as well as several alternate routes I came up with using my own military's tacticians."

Iran and Iraq glanced at each other, then turned petulant glares on America. "We can always complain later," Iraq ceded grudgingly.

"It'll give me more time to think up good complaints," Iran nodded. He and his twin turned to face Saudi Arabia, and said in unison, "Get on with it." The older Nation shrugged and spread his map out on his legs, looking expectantly towards the front of the vehicle.

"You'd think they've been practicing…" Pakistan muttered. She put a hand to the side of her mouth and yelled to Israel in the driver's seat, "Come on back! You'll need to hear this!"

"Gotcha," Israel disappeared from the cab briefly, then reappeared at the back, and grabbed the sides to pull herself in. She made her way to sit between Afghanistan and America, folding her legs as she sat.

Saudi Arabia checked to make sure everyone was paying attention (or just looking at the map, in America's case). He cleared his throat and began.

"From what Iran's interrogators have gathered, the men who attacked our conference were indeed al-Qaida," Saudi Arabia explained, "and after local forces raided all the nearby addresses we were able to get the prisoners to tell us about, we've concluded that the human is likely being held at one of three locations a half-day's journey or more in the desert. This route," he traced a green line on the map with his finger, "will take us to each location, with a maximum travel time of two days—three, if we run into trouble. It's likely at least one location is a fake, but if we find one that's legitimate, we need to first ascertain the likely amount of enemy combatants present, and call in backup."

"Hopefully only one will be legit, and that'll be the one Li's at," America added.

"Yes, but I've also discussed the possibility of all of them being real hideouts, or none of them being authentic, with my tacticians," Saudi Arabia tapped the red dot marking one of the supposed hideouts. "If we find a real one that isn't where the girl is being kept, she could be moved. The same goes for if we hit a fake target the insurgents are watching—we need to be careful to stay unseen, as much as possible."

"Then why's that lumbering oaf Afghanistan along?" Pakistan rolled her eyes. Afghanistan opened his mouth, but saw Saudi Arabia glaring at him and thought better of it.

"What'll we do if Li's been moved?" Israel tried to get the focus back on the mission plans. Pakistan and Afghanistan glared at each other, but returned their attention to Saudi Arabia.

"If she's been moved, we'll gather what information we can from the place where she was held, and regroup at Tehran," Saudi Arabia moved his finger from the hideout dot to the center of Tehran on the map, and made a small circle. "Hopefully it won't come to that, of course."

"And if there's an emergency, we can call in a helicopter or rescue plane with this," America held up a sleek black radio. "It's got its own special frequency, so the terrorists can't hack it without inside information."

"Like the kind of inside information that let them know about our conference?" Afghanistan raised an eyebrow.

Without missing a beat, America grinned. "Yup!"

The Middle Eastern Nations stared at him for a moment, faces disbelieving. Surely not even America could have missed that implication. Finally, Pakistan pushed herself to her feet.

"Before we leave," she announced, "I'm going to use the bathroom."

* * *

Germany's living room was perfectly silent. On the couch sat Germany himself: across from him sat Austria, in a living chair. The coffee table between them was littered with papers, from official documents to rough sketches and blurry photographs. A plate with a torte sat on Austria's side of the table, to his left, still untouched: cups of coffee had cooled on their coasters, full.

Outside, it was a lovely day. The sun shone through the window, fingers of light touching the papers on the coffee table. Several people were on the street, walking dogs or heading home laden with bags. All of them had smiles on their faces.

Austria was the one to break the silence. "Nowhere," he eyed the documents. "No English-speaking or Chinese-speaking countries have reports of missing women or escaped mental patients that match Li's description."

"Nowhere in Europe, either," Germany concluded. He gritted his teeth. This was so frustrating! "I've contacted Japan—the crisis in Fukushima has dealt a severe blow to the surrounding area. Some people are saying it's worse than Chernobyl. He promised to look into the possibility of Li coming from an Asian country, but his hands are full with recovering and dealing with the political and economic fallout. I don't know when he'll be able to give us results."

"My queries to that lab, using the Special International Criminal Investigation Squad guise, have given me nothing," Austria sighed. "I collected Li's fingerprints and a DNA sample from a fork while she was here before going to the Middle East…" The Germanic Nation trailed off, reminded of what had happened in the Middle East. His hands involuntarily clenched. "That foolish America…I've always known he was a simpleton, but to allow the one human in a room full of Nations to be kidnapped…?"

"From what we've heard, there was nothing America could have done," Germany reminded his neighbor, eyes drifting to his cup of coffee. He knew it would be cold by now, but debated taking a sip anyways. It might help him feel better…but America, that utter idiot! Now Li was a hostage, and who knew how long it would be before she was rescued? The investigation into her past was on hold until she could be questioned, if they even needed to keep investigating once the Middle Eastern situation was over.

"It can be hard to believe America at times," Austria was muttering to himself. "He goes to help Japan when there is a nuclear crisis, then winds up at a maid café with Prussia and Korea…"

"That was my brother's fault entirely, though," Germany recalled.

"I do believe America and Korea encouraged him," Austria mused. "Those three…they might be the most foolish of the Nations…"

"Perhaps," Germany leaned back and sighed. He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and looked at the ceiling. White plaster greeted his eyes, and his mind started to wander through the facts of the Middle East incident.

America's report of what had happened at the meeting in Tehran was intriguing, not least of all from his description of Li's actions. Ordinary civilians were more likely to freeze than act in dangerous situations, and her swift counter to a can of gas rolling into the room reinforced what she had told Germany at the Russian airport, about her being a trained soldier. If she was part of some covert attempt to infiltrate the Nations' inner circles, she probably would have withheld that sort of information—having formal training just made her more suspicious. Yet the fact that she had confessed to it also made her less suspicious, at least in regards to the possibility of her being an agent for some other power, and if she knew that it made her even more suspicious.

So if she wasn't working against them, and couldn't be found anywhere in Europe, America, Australia, or most of China, where could she be from? Africa, South America? If only Japan were better, and not so busy, he could be invaluable with getting information from Asia…

Was it possible that Li was telling the truth about her country? Could there really be a small island nation called the Fire Nation, where people spoke English and wrote Chinese? It was impossible that satellite imaging and explorers could have missed such a place, however tiny!

No, she had to be lying about something. But what? When Germany had spoken to her, she'd held things back, he could tell, hiding behind her figurative mask.

That mask was another thing he didn't get—where had it come from? Li used it to distance herself from a conversation, prevent herself from divulging any information she didn't want to give. That sort of mask didn't just appear overnight. She had to have developed it prior to arriving in Russia, starting months, maybe even years ago! Yet without knowledge of her past, Germany had no way of knowing when and how that mask had started. Knowing might help him understand her, and understanding her was key to deciding what to do with her. Lock her up, let her roam free, keep her under close watch…

Germany's eyes closed again. Despite all the suspicions, the lies, the questions…he truly hoped Li would be saved soon.

* * *

Israel walked back towards the truck, arms laden with extra blankets. She'd had the idea to spread them over the benches the others were sitting on, to make them more comfortable, and for once her fellow Middle Eastern Nations were on her side. Afghanistan had tried to make a case for pillows, but Saudi Arabia put his foot down, insisting they needed to limit themselves to the bare minimum. Blankets could be used at night for valuable warmth, but backpacks could replace pillows easily, and hold valuable equipment besides. Pillows were light, but still unnecessary weight.

"Is that Israel?" America, who'd heard her approaching footsteps, poked his head out and grinned. "It is! Great, let's get moving!"

"We have ten minutes left until three," Iraq complained inside the vehicle. Israel reached the open back and held up her stack of blankets, waiting for someone to take them so she could free her arms and climb in.

Saudi Arabia was closer, so he leaned partially out of the back and accepted the heavy heap of fabric. Hands freed, Israel grasped the sides of the truck and pulled herself up, taking the hand America offered to steady herself. Iran and Iraq were playing tic-tac-toe on a piece of scrap paper, with Afghanistan and Pakistan taking sides and advising the Nation they supported on what spot to claim next.

"These will do nicely," Saudi Arabia noted, fingering the thick blankets. Israel had chosen them because of the heavy-duty wool used to weave them: desert nights were as unbearably cold as the days were warm. It wasn't unusual to have frost form in the frigid temperatures. Saudi Arabia set the blankets at his feet, then stood and began to spread one across his section of the bench.

"So, I should head east out of the city?" Israel asked, trying to get final confirmation in case the plan had changed while she'd been gone. It wasn't impossible that America had rethought things—he changed his mind more often than the wind changed directions.

"Yes," Saudi Arabia nodded. "America wanted to make a few last-minute changes, but I told him it would be too inconvenient for you. If you want, I can go over the route again for you?"

"No, I have a map with the route drawn on it already," Israel declined the offer. "Thank you, though. If any of the roads turn out to be impassable, I'll make sure to tell you with the radio so we can coordinate a course change."

"Meanwhile, we'll just sit back here with America, listening to him nattering on about movies," Pakistan muttered. "Iran, go for the square above that one. No, you just completely ruined the strategy I had in mind!"

"It's tic-tac-toe!" Iran threw his arms up in exasperation, nearly losing his grip on the pen in his left hand. "How much strategy can there really be in winning a game of tic-tac-toe?"

"Against you? Not much," Iraq marked an "x" into a square, and drew a line. "Three in a row. I win."

"What? How?" Iran leaned forward, peering at the paper. Pakistan smacked him on the back of his head. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Not listening to me in the first place!" Pakistan scolded him. "You'd better win round two, or I'll hit you harder."

"You can hit harder than that?"

"Yes, yes I can! Now win the next round or I'll demonstrate!"

"Are you sure you'll be all right back here?" Israel eyed the four Nations at the far end of the truck bed. Iraq was laughing at his brother's argument with Pakistan, while Afghanistan was smiling like an American child on Christmas day.

"You live farther away from them," Saudi Arabia sighed. "You don't have to mediate when they start acting like small children. Yes, we'll be all right. If things go too far, I'll stop them."

"And the hero will help!" America added proudly, missing Saudi Arabia roll his eyes. Israel felt a grin tug at her lips, but just gave a vague nod of agreement to America.

"I'll pull over once it starts getting dark out," Israel told Saudi Arabia. "We'll draw straws to see who gets to take the first night-driving shift."

"America will probably volunteer," Saudi Arabia shook his head in annoyance. The Nation team had decided that, with seven of them, it was a good idea to keep driving through the night. Making a camp might be too visible, as firelight could be seen for miles in some parts of the desert. Thankfully the truck's engine was quiet, and the noise barely carried past twenty feet. Their headlights would be visible, of course, but everyone had agreed it was an acceptable risk. Mobility would give them an advantage over predators and human attackers, and if anything larger than a ten-man group tried to ambush them…well, Saudi Arabia had brought a large scimitar for a reason.

"Was there anything else to talk about before moving out?" Israel inquired, shifting her weight in preparation to jump out of the truck.

"Oh! Yes, actually!" Pakistan, who was grinding a fist into the top of Iran's skull, looked up. "I thought of something last night, but I completely forgot about it until now."

"Really?" Saudi Arabia finished arranging his blanket, and nudged the pile towards the back of the truck. Iran and Iraq dove forward, Iran escaping Pakistan's hold on his shoulder, and grabbed the same blanket. They began bickering over it while Afghanistan stole his own blanket and started arranging it.

"Yeah, it's about the lack of a ransom demand," Pakistan squeezed past the arguing Iran and Iraq, then settled herself onto a clear stretch of bench. "The terrorists know we know they have the human, and it's been three days since the attack. I would have expected a ransom by now, but there's been nothing."

Israel pursed her lips. She'd wondered the same thing, and was willing to bet the other Nations and humans involved had thought of the exact same thing. But Israel had dismissed it as the terrorists wanting to make sure they got Li secured before demanding anything. A ransom, so far as Israel was concerned, could be days, even weeks away.

"Part of this is that they attacked our meeting—_our_ meeting, the secret meeting only us, our bosses, and some trusted members of our bosses' staff knew about," Pakistan continued. "If the terrorists knew about the meeting, I'm wondering what else they know."

"What do you mean by that?" Afghanistan frowned, narrowing his eyes.

"I mean, just knowing about our meeting would have required access to incredibly high-security information," Pakistan crossed her arms. "If they could learn about the meeting, it wouldn't have taken much for them to find out about us being Nations."

"So you think they know about the Nations?" Afghanistan scoffed. "Isn't it a bit more likely they just got lucky and came across a document concerning our meeting? Such a huge leak as the knowledge of our existence would jeopardize all of us—not just in the Middle East, all of the Nations, everywhere."

"Try to look at it from Pakistan's perspective," Saudi Arabia urged Afghanistan. "She's saying that for the meeting to have been attacked, the terrorists had to know it was important. And if they were able to get a hold of a document about something like that, it's feasible to argue they could have learned more than _just_ that."

America had a thoughtful expression on his face, which nobody was commenting on for once. "It does make sense," he said slowly, "that they could have learned more. A document about our meeting would have included something about our status, and that would have raised questions. From there, with a little blackmail and digging, the terrorists could have found out about us."

"You're agreeing with her? I thought we were supposed to be allies!" Afghanistan complained.

"Pakistan's argument does have merit, though," Israel tapped her chin and mulled over the sequence of events. "Assuming all they found was a document about our meeting, using that, they could have investigated further. Even if only our human names were on the document, those aren't widely known: and would you go to kidnap a target you know nothing about?"

"Anything more intensive than a Google search would have given us away," Pakistan agreed. "Some of our governments—yes, America, I'm looking at you—have the resources to create elaborate fake identities for us, but most of us poorer Nations can't afford to. Maybe they'd have been fooled if they'd only looked into 'Alfred F. Jones,' but a search for 'Nadira Sadat' would make it obvious that's only a cover identity."

"After that, it would be a matter of investigation—finding where we live, observing us, eavesdropping on our conversations," Saudi Arabia summed up. "We don't actively try to hide our status when interacting with other Nations. A casual observer might overhear something they shouldn't in the street: someone listening closely to our conversations could spot it right away."

Afghanistan creased his brow as he followed the possible explanations. "All right," he admitted, "it's possible. So you think the terrorists know about us? Doesn't that mean we _shouldn't_ be going out into the field?"

"I don't think it makes much difference," Pakistan shrugged. "But that's all a side note to my real point."

"Which is…?" Afghanistan prompted. Pakistan rolled her eyes.

"They attacked what they thought was a meeting of Nations," she explained. "And they kidnapped someone. Now, logically, what do you think they would believe?"

"That they'd captured a…?" Afghanistan's scowl slackened as he stumbled upon the answer. Pakistan nodded smugly.

"Dear Allah," Saudi Arabia whispered. "I didn't think of that…"

"The terrorists think the human is a Nation," Pakistan finished triumphantly. "That she's one of us. And when they find out she's not…" America paled. It occurred to him that, by insisting Li get him the toy soldier as soon as possible, he may have inadvertently brought her closer to her death.

* * *

Li was jerked awake by a sudden noise. Her eyes flew open, and she sat up, only to regret the instinctive motion as her leg wound flared with pain. A small yelp escaped her lips, and she tensed, hands coming up to grasp the hurt leg.

"Calm yourself," someone said, and Li quickly turned her head to see the man who had interrogated her. He was accompanied by three other men and a woman whose body was covered with black fabric. "The time has come to leave this place."

"And let me go home?" Li asked sardonically. The man smiled in amusement and shook his head.

"And go someplace your fellows are less likely to find us," he corrected her, then gestured forward. One of the men with him began to walk towards Li, with the rest following. Unsure of what they were going to do, Li eased herself towards the opposite side of her bed, eyeing the door. Seeing her unease, the woman stepped forward and put a hand on the arm of the man in front.

"اسمحوا لي أن كبح لها," the woman spoke softly. The man hesitated, but nodded and stopped walking. Following his lead, his fellows stopped as well. One handed the woman several strips of fabric and some metal handcuffs.

_Ahh, so they're going to restrain you before moving you_, Ru-voice observed. _Odds are you'll be blindfolded, maybe your legs hobbled so you can't run or walk fast…though, given how much your leg is hurting you, that last bit might be unnecessary._

The woman knelt before Li's bed, and held out an empty hand. Li stared at it, uncomprehending. With a sigh, the woman stood and leaned over the bed, grasping Li's hands and drawing them forwards. When they were about chest height and close together, the woman released them and set the fabric strips and metal handcuffs on one side of the bed.

"اعتذاري," she told Li, only to receive a blank stare. It occurred to Li that the woman wasn't looking her in the eye at all. Face unreadable behind the black fabric covering everything but her eyes, the woman picked up the metal handcuffs and fastened them to one wrist, then the other, preventing Li from moving her hands more than three inches apart. Then she picked up a strip of fabric, and held it out towards Li's face.

"No thanks," Li leaned sideways to avoid the fabric. What she could see of the woman's face became tenser, with a few frown wrinkles. Again, the woman tried to hold the fabric out towards Li's face, but she moved out of the way again.

"Let her blindfold you, or I'll have my men help her," the leader commanded Li. Her eyes flickered to look at him, then back to the woman.

Li sighed. "Fine, do it," she muttered, and closed her eyes. Rough fabric touched the skin over her eyes, and she flinched involuntarily. Body heat radiated from the woman as she fastened the blindfold over Li's eyes, tangling some of her hair into the knot.

_You'll have to rely on your other senses to navigate without your eyes_, Ru-voice sounded worried. _Do you think you can tell where everyone is around you just from body heat?_

_Not likely_, Li thought back. She took a deep breath, inhaling through her nose and exhaling through her mouth. Her focus went to the heat around her, trying to grasp its location and general shape. It was a training technique taught to help Firebenders focus and control their flames better by sensing the heat, not seeing the fire.

But Li's efforts only gave her a vague sense of warmth in front of her, and more farther away. She couldn't tell how far—judging exact distances at more than ten to fifteen feet was hard for Li, and without her eyesight the range was limited to the area a few feet around her.

_Focus on your other senses, then_, Ru-voice advised. _Hearing and smell especially._

_Smell? Seriously?_

_You'd be surprised what you can learn with your nose._

Something touched her lips, and Li realized the woman was trying to tie a piece of fabric around her mouth as well. She clamped her mouth shut, pressing her lips as tightly together as possible. The woman made a "tsk" sound, and put a finger to Li's lips, trying to wiggle it into Li's mouth so she could gag her.

"Let her gag you," the leader growled. It sounded like he was losing his patience with Li quickly. Not wanting to risk him deciding breaking her jaw would be a suitable way to open her mouth, Li slackened her muscles and allowed the woman to tie the gag.

Then another heat source approached, and hands grabbed Li and hauled her roughly to her feet. Her leg nearly buckled, but the hands that had hauled her up supported her, and began forcing her towards the door.

Stumbling, Li was marched through what felt like an endless length of hallways, with countless twists and turns. She lost track of their route early into it, and was at a loss for where she could be when there was the scrape of a door opening and a blast of hot wind. Some sand was carried in the wind, and Li felt some of it get into her hair.

There was a push at her shoulder, and she was led outside and into the sun. She immediately felt its position—sinking close to the horizon, rapidly approaching sunset. People were milling around, talking and shouting, dragging things and starting engines. Were they moving out?

Li was stopped suddenly, and nearly fell over. She shifted all of her weight to her good leg, and waited while her captors yelled and raised their voices in anger over something. Several times she felt the wind of something moving fast near her face, and steeled herself against shying away.

"Anyone care to tell me what's going on?" she muttered. Not surprisingly, nobody answered her.

Without warning, her arms were seized, and Li was being hauled into the bed of some vehicle and out of the sun. She was pressed into a seat, and people squeezed in next to her so it was cramped. The heat of the desert, combined with the body heat of the people in the vehicle, was almost unbearable.

"Let's leave your friends a present," someone close to Li suggested. There was the unmistakable sound of metal-on-leather as a blade was drawn from a sheath, and Li, sightless, gaggled, and bound, cowered. She had a sudden premonition of a blade cutting off her ear, her finger, one of her toes, and shrank further in on herself.

Something tugged a lock of her hair taut. Before she could register it fully, something was cutting the hairs, leaving smaller ones to fall back against her cheek.

For a moment, Li was indignant that they would cut her hair. It was only just starting to get longer again! And Austria had cut it so that it looked nice even as it grew out.

Underneath her, the vehicle jerked. There was some shouting in a strange language, and someone jumped out of the vehicle onto the ground. Then the vehicle lurched forward, driving over bumpy, potholed roads.

Li was on her way to a new prison…


	51. Continue

**Here's a chapter for you. Enjoy! And FYI, I'm not sure if I'll have Internet access next Sunday, so if I don't you'll get the next chapter Monday. **

* * *

The late afternoon heat was starting to cool down, as the sun dipped closer to the horizon. A small cluster of buildings sat in the midst of several large hills, the sparse trees affording a little shade. There was a thin dirt path, not defined enough to be a road, that led to the paved road half a kilometer away.

Along the paved road came a truck, engine quiet, the canvas covering the back fastened down. A figure in the driver's seat was wearing American Army BDUs, with a combat helmet on his or her head. Unseen to anyone outside the cab, the driver had an M16 rifle sitting next to them, within easy reach in case of an attack.

At first it looked like the truck would continue past the dirt path without slowing, but as it neared the turn-off the driver abruptly braked, slowing the truck enough to make a sharp turn off the road without tipping over. There were muffled shouts of protest from the back, which the driver ignored. The truck bounced around as it traveled down the path, which was riddled with tiny bumps and potholes, further jostling the apparent passengers in the back.

"Are you _trying_ to kill us?" A voice called from the back. The driver's lips twitched upwards into a slight grin before settling into a determined look, and their eyes focused on the compound ahead. It grew larger as the truck approached, until the truck was going through an opening between two buildings and the brakes were applied just in time to stop the truck from crashing into the far building.

As soon as the truck was stationary, the canvas at the back of the truck bed flew open. Six people jumped out, two at a time, each holding a weapon at the ready. The lone Caucasian blinked at seeing the lack of responding insurgents, and lowered his M4 carbine.

"Hey, guys…I think this place is abandoned too," he told his companions, eyes searching the buildings and their shadows for some sign of human activity.

"I knew it!" Pakistan threw her weapon on the ground, lip curling up in disgust. "All three locations, empty! This was just a huge waste of our time!" Israel opened the driver's door on the cab, and slipped out quietly, then walked to stand near America.

"Calm down, Pakistan," Saudi Arabia warned her. "You don't know that there is nobody here. We need to investigate first."

"My brother and I will take that building," Iran pointed to the nearest structure.

"Then Afghanistan and I shall take the one to its right," Saudi Arabia suggested. "America, why don't you and Israel take the one next to mine? Pakistan can stay outside and watch the truck, and warn us if anyone approaches or leaves another building."

"Works for me," Pakistan shrugged. She twisted at the waist to check the position of the sun, holding a hand up to shade her eyes. "But we need to be quick—we don't have long until sundown, three hours tops. By then we should be long gone."

"I wouldn't be surprised if there was an ambush waiting for us nearby, in case we stay after dark," Iraq agreed. "Iran, come on." The brothers began to make their way towards the building they were going to search, whispering to each other their plans for investigating it.

"Hurry up and get to it!" Pakistan ordered America, who had paused to study the sun's position. He started, and realized Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan had already left for their assigned building. Israel was standing next to the door of the one she and America would look through, gun ready.

America frowned, and took a second longer to glance around at the surrounding land. It was mostly grassland, with stalks of grass that came up to the waist of a grown man. The scenery was very different from the stereotypical view of Iran as a desert country. There were mountains in the distance, and the landscape grew increasingly green the closer to the mountains.

"America, come on!" Israel beckoned. He snapped back to the mission at hand, and nodded to her.

"Coming," he called. Sparing one final glance around, he jogged towards the squat cement building.

Once he reached the doorway, he and Israel acted in tandem without speaking. America entered first, squinting against the darkness and trying to see if anyone was coming out. When nobody appeared, he gave Israel the "all clear" signal, and walked in a few more paces.

The interior was dim, with no lights on that America could see. He saw a light switch, but knew better than to turn it on—that would just alert anyone hiding nearby to his presence. Israel produced a flashlight with red cellophane over it, and shone it into the shadows: America silently applauded her forethought and checked at the red-lit areas as the flashlight beam hit them. Because the light was red, America's slowly-adjusting vision wasn't hampered by a bright light.

He spotted an open doorway, and signaled to Israel to slow down. They crept along the hallway, taking care not to place make any noise with each step. America indicated spots for Israel to shine her flashlight, and she did so, but they found nothing more than a spider web or a couple of mice. There was a flash of a long, naked tail, and Israel barely stifled a yelp, but that was all.

After they had checked every room with an open door and every hallway, they started knocking on locked doors, using America's ridiculous strength to knock them down when there was no reply.

"Nothing," America hissed as he walked out of the last room. "They must have heard we were coming somehow, and left before we could get here."

"Or they already had plans to move," Israel argued as the two headed for the exit. "We don't know what happened to make them leave. It's possible this is a coincidence."

"A coincidence? There are still footprints in the dirt outside," America grumbled. "I find it hard to believe that they would leave just in time to avoid us. Pakistan _was_ right, they have inside information!"

"If that's the case, we'll launch an investigation," Israel cautioned, "but we need to be smart about this. Accusing the wrong people will just delay us. Once we get back to Tehran, we can contact government officials, tell them our suspicions…our bosses will need to hear of this for sure."

"Yeah, I know," America sighed. Some of his bangs flopped forward into his face, and he blew them out of the way. "It's just frustrating…and hard to accept. A leak means trouble for everyone, and it's hard to think of who could have done it."

"There's the chance it wasn't any of our people," Israel pointed out. "Think about how many Nations there are in the world. Each one is a possible leak…albeit, some more than most…" She broke off as she realized that line of conversation might not be a good idea. There were definitely Nations she would consider more likely to let the secret out than others…and America was on that list. It was nothing against him, he was just…well, to be honest, he was just too carefree. Not that being carefree was a bad thing, but America didn't seem to realize the danger of being open and friendly with everyone.

America didn't give any indication he noticed her stop speaking, and Israel studied him from the corner of her eye. His eyes were fixed on the hallway ahead, his forehead creased as he thought. Had Pakistan been there, she would undoubtedly have faked shock—well…maybe not faked…but it was certainly unusual to see America without a huge grin on his face.

Israel was glad when they exited the building. The gloom inside was oppressive, sending her thoughts to places she didn't want them to go. Outside the sun was shining, clearing away any depressing thoughts.

"Nothing for you guys, too?" Afghanistan called. He was leaning against the side of the truck, a half-eaten protein bar in his hand. "Iran and Iraq aren't back yet. Saudi Arabia took Pakistan to investigate the next building. He said I should take the one after that with America. Israel, watch the truck."

"Got it," Israel nodded, walking to the driver's side door of the cab and pulling herself in through the open door. Several books were scattered on the passenger seat, as well as extra ammunition clips—Israel wanted to be prepared in case of both boredom or an attack. She watched Afghanistan and America walk into one of the abandoned buildings, then leaned back in her seat and exhaled.

She was tired. Common consensus had been that Israel should drive as much as possible, as a way to keep her from getting into any arguments with the other Middle Eastern Nations. They were supposed to be avoiding conflict during the mission…but Pakistan and Afghanistan weren't exactly following the spirit of the agreement.

And of course, there was the mission's objective itself. Israel hated to let terrorists get away with harming anyone—but she'd never taken a personal interest before, beyond urging her government to take action. It had always been someone else's job. Now that it was hers, she was finding out just how hard it could be. Running into dead ends, finding no leads, all the while hoping that the captive was all right, it was just so…exhausting.

Israel leaned her forehead against the dashboard, took in a deep breath, and let it out. This was more frustrating than dealing with stubborn, self-serving politicians and antagonistic Nations, or being the odd one out of the Middle East. She was having doubts about everything, about whether this was really a good idea to come along in person, whether Li was even alive, whether they were on the right track or not. Maybe she'd made a mistake agreeing to come herself. America didn't really _need_ the Nations to come along, there were plenty of humans that were much more capable.

_Thmp_. Israel started, and pulled out her pistol instinctively. She leveled it at head height out the driver-side window, where the noise had come from, then blinked and flinched. "Saudi Arabia?" she gasped, her heart pounding in her ears.

"Did I startle you?" Saudi Arabia looked apologetic. "I'm sorry. But you should come, quickly. Iran and Iraq found something." Saudi Arabia dashed off, around the truck, disappearing from sight. Israel paused for a moment, then opened the driver's door and followed him.

"You found something?" Israel shouted as she rounded the back of the truck. Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan were clustered together near the opening in the rear of the truck. Iraq was holding something in his hands, but not enough of it was showing for Israel to guess at what it was.

Pakistan looked up as Israel approached, and nodded wildly. "Something!" She called, pointing to Iraq's hand. "It's hair…a lock of hair!"

"Hair?" Israel frowned, slowing down to a stop as she reached the other Nations. "You found some hair?"

"It looks like the same color as Li's," Iran explained. "And it was in a small room, on a bed. Now, I'm not one to judge, but it looked like the kind of place you might keep someone locked up in."

"Could it be some sort of message?" Israel grabbed Iraq's wrist. "Let me see it!"

"Sure," Iraq opened his hand, and Israel snatched the lock of hair from him. She held it up to the light and squinted, trying to recall the shade of Li's hair. Brown…very brown, about medium dark, with some lighter brown highlights when you held it in strong light. Was this hair like Li's? Israel thought…

Yes. It was Li's hair. Had to be. If it wasn't…no, it was. Israel was tired and didn't think she could stand it if the hair was fake.

"Where's America and Afghanistan?" Iraq craned his head around. "They should hear this!"

"They're still searching one of the buildings," Pakistan explained. "Let's leave them be for now…it's nice not having Afghanistan around."

"Maybe someone should look for tracks or something," Iran suggested. "There could be a clue as to where the people here went."

"I'll go," Saudi Arabia immediately volunteered. His eyes flickered to Israel, and he added, "Perhaps Israel should accompany me. She has a good eye."

"Thank you, I'd be happy to help," Israel smiled gratefully at him. She studied the ground beneath the five Nations, then looked over at the dirt near one side of the compound. "We've churned up a lot of this ground already…and the wind might have obscured a lot more…but I think there could be something lasting near the sides. None of us have gone over that way," she pointed south. "Start there?"

"An excellent idea," Saudi Arabia agreed with her. Israel walked over to the south side of the compound and crouched down, narrowing her eyes as she inspected the earth. The wind had indeed ruined most of the tracks, but she could still see impressions where a truck had sat for a while. Scuffs about as wide as a tire went north, then east—the direction opposite the road.

"I think they went east," Israel informed Saudi Arabia and pointed. "Those look like tire tracks…but why would they ignore the road?"

"The road runs mostly north and south," Saudi Arabia followed the line of Israel's finger. "Perhaps they wanted to head due east, as fast as possible? That direction would take them to the border with Afghanistan."

"You think they left for Afghanistan?" Israel considered the thought. "It makes sense. Going to another country would be tricky, but they probably have more of a support base there."

"I will go examine the tracks further," Saudi Arabia suggested. Behind him, there was a loud, familiar shout. "It sounds like America has just returned. Could you go prevent him from provoking the others into attacking?"

"Sure," Israel stood up and dusted her pants off. Saudi Arabia walked for the eastern side of the compound, eyes on the ground. Israel paused to look at the eastern horizon through the spaces between buildings.

_Soon_, she promised herself. _Soon I'll see those terrorists face-to-face._

* * *

Wulong was warm, lying on something soft. She knew she was starting to wake up, but she didn't want to. It was nice where she was, it was nice getting to indulge in the sleep she didn't really need. Sometimes when she slept, she dreamed of her mother. That was nice.

She'd been dreaming of her mother before she started to wake up, actually. Wulong didn't know what her mother looked like, or sounded like—the older spirit had been destroyed in the Battle of Wulong Forest as the new Wulong Forest spirit was born. But Wulong did have a vague memory from her first moments of life, just before her mother crumbled into ashes. Someone holding her tight, their chest vibrating as they hummed to the young Wulong, trying to convey to her all their love.

In Wulong's dream, she was reliving that memory again. Strong arms clutched her to her mother, and she could make out the tune that her parent was humming, an Earth Kingdom lullaby.

"_More precious than all the gold of the earth,_

_More lovely than dancing flames in the hearth,_

_More soft than the endless reach of the skies,_

_That is a baby in her mother's eyes."_

Snuggled safe and warm, Wulong wanted to stay in her dream forever…

So she was rather grumpy when she found herself waking up, completely against her will. At first she couldn't remember her dream, and her grass-green eyes blinked open. Then the memory came back to her, and she felt a wave of sadness that it was over. "Mother…" Wulong whispered, feeling her chest constrict.

Then Wulong realized she was in a strange room, and her attention snapped to the present. She sprang up out of the bed, looking wildly around for anyone to attack or question. When she realized she was alone, Wulong rushed to the door and tested the knob. It was unlocked, and she walked out into a hallway filled with evenly-spaced doors.

"This isn't weird at all," Wulong muttered, and started at the echoes her voice created. She spied a door at one end of the hallway and ran for it, the louder-than-they-should-be slaps of her feet on the ground spurring the forest spirit on.

Huo heard the door open and looked up, surprised. Wulong burst into the blue library, looking terrified. "Oh, you're up," he noted. His eyes wandered to the window he was sitting next to, drawn by the upside-down garden outside. Yue glanced up from her book, nodded an acknowledgement to Wulong, and returned to the story.

"That hallway is freaky!" Wulong shouted, pointing to it before the library doors swung shut. "Everything echoes like mad!"

"Yeah, it did that when I was in there, too," Huo agreed. He pressed himself closer to the window—was that a baby polar bear dog in the garden? But it was gray and brown, not white, and shaped so strangely…

"Huo? Moon Spirit?" Wulong realized who was in the room. "What are…where are we ?"

"Another world," Huo called over his shoulder. The dark-furred baby polar bear dog was chasing one of the rabbits in the garden, its enthusiasm making it leap completely off the ground as it bounded after its quarry. Huo kept expecting it to fall.

"Why are we in another world?" Wulong's voice acquired that hard edge that meant she was getting angry. Huo's lips tugged upwards as he heard it. Wulong might think she was scary when she was angry, but she was so childish in her anger she was cute more than anything else.

"Because we fell in," Huo answered Wulong. "Ru was exhausted, and stumbled, and we wound up falling down here. There was some hole in the rocks—I'm not clear on the details." He paused. "Have you ever been to another world?"

"I'm the spirit of a specific place," Wulong reminded the Avatar irritably. "So no. This is my first time somewhere other than the Spirit World or my forest."

"Okay," Huo squinted out the window. The baby polar bear dog had vanished. Wulong drew in a deep breath.

"SO WHY ARE WE STILL HERE?"

"Not so loud," Huo winced and covered his ears. Wulong growled, her fox tail lashing back and forth. "And we're still here because Ru needs to rest. We wound up here because she was tired. If we want to help Li when we find her, we need to take the time to rest a little."

"Just throw her over your shoulder and carry her!" Wulong spat. "We're losing time! We don't know how long it'll be until Li's soul deteriorates! How is delaying going to help her?"

"How is being exhausted and useless when we arrive going to help her?" Huo countered.

"I'm a spirit! I don't need sleep!" Wulong crossed her arms.

"And you're so powerful outside your forest," Huo rolled his eyes. He didn't want to deal with Wulong when she was being unreasonable. "Just let Ru have her rest, all right? She's going to be furious when she learns what we did."

Wulong harrumphed, selected a corner, and went to sulk. Everything in her wanted to leave now and go after that stupid Firebender Li, but…outside her forest, her strength was limited. Huo could get scary when you angered him enough, and Yue was ignoring the forest spirit completely. It was probably better to forget about it, for now…

But she was going to _kill_ Li for getting into this situation in the first place, when they finally found the stupid Firebender.

* * *

"And you're sure this is accurate? All right, thank you," America shut his cell phone and turned to the Middle Eastern Nations. "A caravan of what were thought to be refugees crossed the Iranian-Afghani border several days ago. They raised a few suspicions, but their paperwork was in order. One of the border guards thought a woman in the back of one truck looked paler than she should, but dismissed it as illness."

"Pale? Could she have been Li?" Israel asked anxiously.

"Well, she had a full-body veil on, just the eyes showing," America explained, "but it's possible. What skin they did see looked pale. When she shifted, they saw her bare ankle, and thought that looked pretty pale too. Attempts to locate the caravan are turning up nothing."

"So they've moved to my home," Afghanistan rested his head in his hands and sighed. "I was afraid of that." Outside, a car honked madly. The Nations had returned to Tehran to regroup and gather information, and were waiting in Iran's apartment for him and Pakistan to return with food.

"Don't worry, we don't blame you," Iraq assured Afghanistan. "I know how it feels to get blamed for a few people in your Nation doing stupid things…"

"Yeah, like nine-eleven!" America interjected.

"That was the Taliban," Iraq groaned. "And they were in Afghanistan at the ti—uh. No offense, Afghanistan."

"None taken," Afghanistan assured his fellow Nation. "America did sort of invade us both because of that. And hey, at least you got rid of a terrible leader."

"The hero makes everything better!" America pumped a fist.

"Ten years of war isn't better, America," Iraq glared at the world superpower.

"Both of you stop now," Saudi Arabia spoke sharply. "We don't need you getting into any petty arguments. Rather, should we not discuss our plans for now?"

"Plans? What plans?" America frowned. "We're going after the terrorists, aren't we?"

"Our agreement was that we would help you pursue the terrorists, yes," Saudi Arabia ceded, "but what if any of us wish to leave the group? It was felt by several of us that we would only cooperate for that sojourn into the desert. I intend to remain until we have completed the mission of rescuing Austria's maid," he added as he saw America's face fall, "but others might choose not to."

"You know I'm staying," Israel assured America. "There's no doubt there."

"But Pakistan might feel differently, for one," Saudi Arabia pointed out. "And I'm sure Iran and Iraq are getting tired of…certain members of our group." Iraq rolled his eyes—why not just say it? America was annoying as all hell, and Iraq didn't enjoy spending time with him. Nor was Iraq shy about stating his feelings. All that kept him from expressing them was the fact that Saudi Arabia had requested he be civil.

The door to the apartment opened, and Iran stepped in. Pakistan followed him, arms laden with fast food bags, and mouth set in an upside-down curve.

"—bad," Iran insisted as he entered, the Nations sitting in his home only catching the last word.

"Not that bad? Really?" Pakistan narrowed her eyes. "That car was coming straight at me. It didn't even slow down."

"Because the driver assumed you would get out of the way," Iran signed. "It's not his fault if you can't be bothered to think of others when you walk."

"I do too think of others! But I couldn't risk walking too fast with all these bags in my arms! Here, I got food," Pakistan shoved half the fast food bags into Iraq's arms, and gave the rest to Saudi Arabia. She turned back to Iran with her mouth set in a stubborn line, clearly intent on continuing her argument with him.

"Maybe you two should calm down," Saudi Arabia suggested. "We have food: let's eat it."

"Yeah, sure," Pakistan looked away from Iran. Her eyes settled on America, and the stubborn line appeared again. "Don't suppose you know what we're doing next, oh fearless leader?"

"Saudi Arabia and I were just talking about it," America nodded. "He says some of you guys might wanna leave our group, now that the first mission's done."

"It's tempting," Iran mused, helping Iraq set his armload of fast food bags on a side table. "My workload really piled up while we were off in the desert, and I don't know if I can afford to take much more time off. There are reports to read, policies to discuss, people to shout at…is anyone thirsty? I have some beer in my fridge, if you want."

"Beer is illegal here," Israel pointed out. "All forms of alcohol are. I thought you were a religious state."

"Well, I am, but just because Muslims aren't supposed to consume alcohol doesn't mean everybody obeys," Iran shrugged. "And it's a little exciting to break the law. Have I mentioned everyone does it?"

"Everyone does it? Ooh, clearly it's a good idea," Iraq joked.

"Guys, we were talking about whether anyone wants to leave," Afghanistan reminded them. "Let's figure that out before we discuss illegal alcohol consumption."

"He's right," Israel supported her fellow Middle-Eastern Nation. "I'm staying, of course, but what about the rest of you?" Her gaze turned almost immediately to Saudi Arabia. His eyes widened a fraction in surprise at being singled out, but he recovered quickly and rubbed his chin in contemplation.

"I…should cooperate with America further," he thought out loud. "Yet, at the same time, I have my own duties to tend to. America, can you give me a good reason why I should shirk my responsibilities to help you?"

"Because I'm the hero, and it's the perfect chance to be a sidekick?" America suggested brightly. Saudi Arabia sighed.

"Yes, of course. There's no chance I can leave you to fend for yourself," he pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to stave off a growing headache. "I will accompany you until this debacle is over, and you leave. No telling what havoc you'll wreak otherwise…" The last words were muttered, and only Pakistan caught them. She giggled, then turned her own mind to the situation.

"Well, I'd love to leave…" her voice trailed off. "But…I'm your medic. If I leave, you're all in trouble. And while I dislike some of you," and here she gave Afghanistan and America long looks, "I don't think I could stand knowing I let fellow Nations hare off and get themselves hurt while I went home and relaxed."

America grinned as he received confirmation of three definite team members for however long they were needed. "Afghanistan, buddy," he started, but Afghanistan held his hand up before America could get any farther.

"The enemy is suspected to have entered my territory," he spoke, "and I can't turn a blind eye to that. However much I'll regret it later, you'll have my support and help until these terrorists have been captured."

Iran and Iraq glanced at each other, knowing they were the last two to decide their involvement. Neither had a really good reason for staying, and several legitimate reasons to leave. Now that the terrorists were suspected to have moved on to Afghanistan, Iran's help was no longer necessary. With no more immediate danger to his home, he could drop from the team and catch up on his work at home, maybe relax a little, while the rest of the group went off and risked harm. Iraq's presence was mainly due to Saudi Arabia asking him to join, and he would be easily replaced by human soldiers. Further, Iraq's home was in a mess partially thanks to America's intervention.

"I'll understand if you don't stay," America informed the twin Nations quietly. Everyone's eyes turned to him, expressions varying from shock to worry to suspicion. He wasn't _really_ acting serious...was he?

"Who are you, and what have you done with America?" Pakistan intoned.

"I'm the hero, and I am America," came the reply. The Nations breathed a sigh of relief. "Iran, Iraq, dudes, I'd like an answer."

"I…" Iran threw his arms up. "I'll stay! If only because none of you expect me to, and I feel like being contrary!"

"Good enough for me," Iraq agreed. "I'm in."

"Really?" America instantly brightened. "Awesome! Okay, let's eat, then get going!"

"Should I call my government to let them know we'll be coming?" Afghanistan asked.

"Good idea," Saudi Arabia nodded. "Iraq, you mentioned beer…?"

Israel smiled as the others began to dig into the food, and beer cans were passed around. She might be the outsider of the Middle East, but for this moment, she felt like "one of the gang."


	52. Daughter

**Well, here's another chapter. I didn't post in Fire Lily last week because I had OFUA:TLA, and I figured that was good enough...then the week before, I was just plain distracted. By a distracting person. Yeah. Sorry. I don't own Avatar or Hetalia.**

* * *

A hot wind swept the airfield, making everyone's hair stream in the direction the wind was heading. Afghanistan, feeling more comfortable now that he was in his home, took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. It was warm for April, in the low seventies, and he felt the heat deep inside of his own body as well. The common view of the Middle East was as empty deserts, but that couldn't be farther from the truth in places. Most of Afghanistan was rugged landscape, with mountains and plains that were spectacular to view.

"It's a bit windy out, isn't it?" Pakistan commented. "Lots of hot air. Weird, Afghanistan's not even talking." She clutched the full-body veil she had donned for the plane ride closer to her body, trying to keep it from flapping in the wind. Afghanistan frowned at her, but refrained from speaking.

"Is there a car to take us to the government building?" Saudi Arabia inquired as he stepped onto the concrete of the landing strip. His neat shoes and suit made him stand out from the other Nations, who were in either military uniforms, casual clothing, or (in Pakistan's case) full-body veils. Israel attracted a few looks, as an unveiled Middle Eastern woman in a primarily Muslim country, but she shrugged them off without a word.

"Er…that one, over there, I think," Afghanistan pointed to a dark limo sitting on the edge of the runway, motor still running. The airport the Nations had used was one reserved for high-ranking government officials, on the outskirts of Kabul, and because no other planes were scheduled to land or take off until tomorrow the limo was allowed to get closer to the strip than most vehicles.

"Dude, limo ride! Awesome!" America grinned, and slung his duffel bag off of his shoulder. "Can we get some burgers too? I'm starving!"

"You eat too much," Israel admonished him. "And you almost never eat healthy food—no, lettuce and tomatoes on burgers don't count!"

"I'm surprised you're not fat already," Iraq commented. Iran slapped a hand over his brother's mouth, a second too late—America had heard Iraq's words, and his mood changed from cheerful to depressed in a moment.

"Fat…I _am_ gaining weight…" the world superpower muttered. "Maybe I should work out more…"

"Nice going," Iran hissed to his brother. "Now America's going to be depressed for the rest of the day, and when he gets over it he's going to go on another workout binge!"

"B-but the only reason he's gaining is because of the extra muscle mass!" Iraq protested. "He's gotta realize that! Right?"

"Think who we're talking about here," Pakistan entered the brothers' conversation. "America realizing something—what are the odds? It's like expecting Russia to marry Belarus."

"She has a point," Afghanistan sighed. "You know how bad it is when I actually agree with Pakistan."

"It _is_ bad if he's agreeing with Pakistan," Saudi Arabia sighed, "but could we please get into the limo? We can let the workers here take care of our luggage."

"Come on, America," Israel encouraged the sulking Nation. "You're not getting fat, I promise. Let's get in the limo, and later we can get something to eat…something other than burgers."

"B-but, they're so good!" America protested. "Doesn't Afghanistan have a McDonald's? We can get fries and pop, too…"

"No. Healthy food," Pakistan crossed her arms. "I want a shawarma. And some tea." She paused, then added, "Or maybe vegetarian pizza. Pizza is okay."

"We can go out to eat after we finish our business here, okay?" Afghanistan suggested. "There's an official waiting at my house right now to discuss the situation. He has all the information we've been able to gather about the terrorists that attacked our meeting in Tehran, and a few theories from my military leaders about where the terrorists might have gone from the border."

"Yeah, let's go," Iran and Iraq started to head for the limo, and Afghanistan quickly jogged so that he was leading them. Pakistan 'hmph'ed and started to stride after them, holding her chin up to show her disdain for Afghanistan's home and emphasize to everyone that she was only there as a favor. Saudi Arabia and Israel shared a glance, shrugged, and followed the other Nations, Israel pulling America along. The latter was still sulking over Iraq's careless words, making Israel roll her eyes in exasperation.

"I'm not getting fat…am I?" America looked at Israel pleadingly. She paused.

"It's just muscle mass. Really."

"I knew it…" America looked down miserably. Israel held back a groan of frustration—America never believed it when people tried to tell him his increasing weight was from the muscles developed after working out for half a day, five days a week.

* * *

Li was being marched down another hallway, a blindfold covering her eyes and her hands secured behind her back with some sort of handcuffs. Two people were on either side of her, grasping her upper arms to keep her moving in the direction they wanted. Footsteps behind and in front of her told Li that she was being escorted by four people, maybe five—it was hard to determine from just the sound of footsteps alone. The Ru-voice in her head was talking at her less and less as Li's head recovered from the concussion, and Li was still woozy and slightly off-balance from the injury.

Suddenly the men escorting Li stopped, and hinges creaked. Li felt a slight breeze as a door opened, and she was shoved forward into open space. Anticipating to hit a wall or the floor, Li's eyes squeezed shut behind the blindfold, and she braced herself for impact.

Instead of hitting anything, Li was grabbed and steadied by one of the men behind her. Her hands, bound behind her back, were seized, and something clicked. The handcuffs loosened and came off, freeing Li's hands. She automatically reached up to the blindfold, and pulled it up just as the door behind her slammed shut.

She found herself looking at a room, lit by a light bulb in the center of the ceiling, with tan walls and an off-white carpet. A bed with an actual mattress, sheets, and pillow had been placed in one corner. In the opposite corner was a sofa. The door was located in the middle of one wall, closer to the sofa than the bed.

_All right, it looks like you'll be here for a while_, Ru-voice spoke. _What do you do when you're locked in a room?_

_Search for anything to use in case of an escape_, Li replied. She studied the room, trying to determine what could be useful. The bed sheets, she decided, could be torn into strips and used to make a rope. There was no window, but Li knew from experience that trying to shimmy down an outside wall with a sheet-rope was just asking for trouble. If you didn't have prior experience and training, you were more likely to hurt yourself than succeed, and guards would be able to hear you all the way down…like that one time when Li was thirteen and tried to sneak out of the Palace without telling Ru…

Perhaps the sofa or bed could block the doorway? But the door's hinges were on the outside, so that was the direction it would open to. Anyone wanting to come in would be able to climb over the bed. What if Li blocked the door with the bed and wrestled the sofa on top of the bed? No, the sofa looked heavy, and Li didn't think she could manage that. Besides, there would still be a space under the bed that someone could slip through…could Li move the bed so that whoever opened the door would be distracted by the bed in the way, and not notice Li coming out from underneath the bed until she was clear and ready to fight?

_How's your leg feeling?_ Ru-voice asked. _Healing up?_

_It's okay, but I don't think I should exert myself until it's healed more_, Li answered. Thinking of her leg made it twinge, so she reached down to rub it, wincing as the bullet wound twinged. It was very annoying not to have any Waterbender Healers around, Li decided, and she would never undervalue their presence again. The moment she returned to her world, she would give her friend Ming the best hug she could and beg the woman to forgive Li for all the times Li snapped at her during a healing.

_Your chances of escape with what they've left in here aren't looking so good_, Ru-voice observed. _Take a closer look at the sofa. See if the cushions can be removed, or if the frame might be breakable. It's too bad they didn't give you any chairs, you could have broken one and used the pieces as a weapon…_

Li smiled at Ru-voice's wishful thinking, exactly what Ru would have said in this situation, and walked over to the sofa. Her leg was healing enough for her to bear walking on it, but the twinges of pain made her wonder if she should stay off it. It turned out the sofa's frame was made entirely of "plastic," a material common in this world, that Li knew she couldn't break with her hands. There was a chance she could melt the plastic, and break the frame into pieces that way—but there was also a chance Li could start a fire.

The sofa's cushions were removable, and Li took them all out to make sure. She stacked them to one side so they would be out of the way, and examined the frame of the sofa more closely, in case her initial search had missed something. When she found nothing, Li turned her attention to the cushions. They were made of cheap fabric, and had zippers covering foam pads.

_If there was a window, you could do the sheet-rope trick and use these to keep yourself from getting hurt while escaping_, Ru-voice suggested.

_Too bad there's no window_, Li chuckled to herself. _But I doubt these cushions could protect against a bullet. And my leg's probably not up for that method of escape._

_Good point_, Ru-voice agreed. _You need more time for it to heal. At least the doctor was able to take care of the infection when it was just starting._

_I just hope it heals before I really need to use it_, Li frowned. How long _would_ it be before her leg healed? She rarely had any injuries that weren't tended to immediately by a Healer, so she didn't know how long it would be before she could move without pain. A few days? The bandages were changed twice a day by a woman in a full-body veil, the kind Li had been put in to get through a checkpoint on the way here, and it looked like the wound was closing quickly…but…

Careful not to reopen the wound, Li probed the bandaged area with a finger. The pressure caused a shot of white-hot pain to run up Li's leg, leaving her with clenched teeth and the decision not to do that again. She sat down on the pile of cushions, lifting her leg so it wouldn't come in contact with the floor in case that caused any more pain.

Being shot was _painful_, Li mused. Whoever had come up with the idea of guns was definitely cruel-minded. Forcing small pieces of metal to enter a human body at great speed…it was similar to the pebble-barrage attack Hong had copied from Huo's Avatar State attacks, or the Airbending-enhanced marbles Ru's boyfriend Si Wang used to repel attackers. Neither Hong nor Si would have thought of using enough force to actually have their projectiles penetrate the skin, which was Li's only assurance that they were better people than the creators of guns.

And when the pellets penetrated the skin, Li thought grimly, you had a risk of infection. That was one of the worst dangers involved with injuries, infection. You could put pressure on a bleeding wound to stop the blood flow, you could set a broken bone, you could stitch up or bind a wound, but if you had an infection and no medicine you were in trouble. Before the advent of anti-infection drugs, soldiers and civilians alike feared infection. Infected limbs had to be amputated before the infection could spread. If you couldn't cut off the infected area…

Li shivered, remembering the stories she'd heard while at training camps in the Fire Nation. Old soldiers who had participated in quelling rebellions and bandit groups told the young trainees about their "glory days" in the army. One woman, a veteran member of the Home Guard, had waggled the stump of her right arm and reminisced about how an accident while on kitchen duty that went untreated resulted in a devastating infection of flesh-eating bacteria. Only amputation had saved the woman's life. Thinking about the puckered flesh on the end of the woman's arm-stump…it was rude to stare or show disgust, but Li had been very much unsettled by the sight.

At least she'd been given disinfectants once the infection was caught, and had the area bandaged properly. There was less danger of infection in lieu of treatment, and Li was being careful to keep the area clean. She could have done with a bath—she hadn't had one since she was captured—but at least she splashed some water on herself when she could for hygiene's sake. Her period hadn't come, probably due to stress, but Li was used to it being infrequent: she'd had a rigorous schedule before the Tóngyī Revolution, and plenty of worries afterwards.

What worried Li the most at this point was the possibility of the Nations not finding her. She had initially expected the Nations—America in the least—to mount a huge effort to save her, but that had died away after realizing that she was only one human. Austria had told Li that the Middle East, the region of the world where Li was now, had been in turmoil for decades. Compared to the conflicts that must be going on now, what was Li's importance?

She bit her lip. There was certainly a rescue operation underway, but that didn't particularly mean the Nations would be involved. Why would they be? They had their own duties, their own problems. Taking time out to rescue one human girl? What would be the point in that?

No, the Nations were likely not directly involved in looking for Li. Since Li had no idea how competent their militaries were, she needed to depend on her own strength to escape. First, she would wait for her leg to heal. Once she could move freely without pain, she would act. Until then, she just needed to plan…

One flaw. Li might value plans as safety nets of knowing what she would do, but she had trouble thinking up anything more complex than "I see bad guy, I burn his face off."

* * *

Fire Nation paused on a high point in the hills surrounding his daughter's home, and looked down on the open space where she had made her home. Older Nations had based their Wanban homes on those from the mortal world: United Republic had only gained her own home once the Nations had traveled to the Spirit World, and thus had no traditional designs to draw from. Consequently, she had constructed a small compound for herself, basing the layout on her mother's home and using Fire Nation architecture for the actual buildings.

As her lands in the mortal world grew, United Republic had redesigned her house to match her people's influence. The unconnected buildings were made into one sprawling house, with a large courtyard left open in the middle. Round Fire Nation windows were replaced with larger, rectangular ones filled with glass that both let in light and kept out the cold. A small dome, based on the igloos Southern Water Tribe had lived in for centuries, was placed on the entrance hall's roof. All the other roofs had gone from pointed to flat, with easy access from trapdoors set in ceilings.

It was amazing that the different styles from the Four Nations could blend together, but they did. United Republic, originally a mix of her parents' culture, had come into her own with the end of the War. Immigration to her lands from the Water Tribes had introduced the adaptability and flexibility that United Republic needed to accommodate the rapid growth of her home, in particular Republic City. Combined with the drive and dedication of her Fire Nation citizens, and the stubbornness of her Earth Kingdom residents (All right, and the endurance of the Earth Kingdom people too. They _had_ managed to repel the Fire Nation for a hundred years), United Republic was able to forge herself into a world power.

A chuckle escaped Fire Nation's lips as he recalled the day his daughter proved her power to him. He had never stopped thinking of her as a child, nor would he ever stop loving her, but after learning that his daughter had greater industrial power than him…well, that was an eye-opener. The Fire Nation had dismantled many of his factories after the War ended, as economic fallout of the loss of demand for battleships and war engines. His dirigible industry had experienced a small boom in the wake of their application to commercial travel, but the monopoly he'd had was quickly taken away by the Earth King sponsoring factories in the United Republic.

Something moved behind the house, and Fire Nation craned his neck to see what it was. The person walked around to the front of the building, clad in orange and yellow, and Fire Nation automatically frowned. It was Air Temple Island, who lived with United Republic.

Air Temple Island noticed Fire Nation on the road, and waved. Fire Nation responded with a half-hearted wave of his own, the reminder of Air Temple's presence in his daughter's house dampening Fire Nations' mood. He didn't have anything against Air Temple Island. If Air Temple Island wasn't living with his daughter, Fire Nation would be fond of the boy. However, as a father, Fire Nation found himself obligated to dislike any male his daughter spent more than five minutes alone with.

With a sigh, Fire Nation set out down the road once more. He began to mentally prepare himself for the awkward greeting that would ensue when he was in range of Air Temple Island, and the strained conversation that would follow as Air Temple Island led Fire Nation to where United Republic was. There would be the eternally-present camelephant of what had happened to the original Air Nomad culture, and Fire Nation's unsubtle hints that the same would happen to Air Temple Island if he hurt United Republic in any way. When they reached United Republic, she would give Air Temple Island her usual greeting of a kiss, irking Fire Nation further, before smiling at her father and giving him his hug.

Yes, Fire Nation thought, it was practically a routine.

Something seemed off about Air Temple's behavior as Fire Nation approached. The spiritual young man was twisting his prayer beads nervously back and forth in his hands, trying to rub each individual bead in order. Seeing the normally calm Nation so agitated put Fire Nation on guard—the only other time he had seen Air Temple Island act like this was when he came clean about his relationship with United Republic.

Warning bells clanged in Fire Nation's head. If the first time had been about admitting to a relationship with United Republic, what was this time going to be about?

As he got closer, Fire Nation slowed his pace, testing to see how it would affect Air Temple Island. The younger Nation started to fidget even more. When Fire Nation was finally within easy talking range, Air Temple Island blurted out, "Your daughter thinks we should sleep together."

Fire Nation stopped dead in his tracks. "I didn't know she felt that way," he spoke easily, feigning ignorance of what Air Temple Island meant. "Sadly, I don't have any interest in men."

"No, not you and me, I meant, me and her," Air Temple Island babbled. "She, she mentioned it a decade ago, a passing thing really, but last night she got a letter from her mother and she was very quiet for a while and when I asked her what was wrong she brought it up again out of the blue and she was very aggressive and I may have panicked and run into the courtyard and now I think she's sulking because she didn't touch breakfast this morning and are you going to kill me?"

There was a beat as Fire Nation digested everything Air Temple had said, and he blinked. Air Temple Island looked absolutely terrified, his eyes nearly perfect circles.

"So," Fire Nation began slowly, his hand turning small circles as he spoke, "my daughter propositioned you to sleep together, for the first time since your relationship began about a hundred years ago, and you declined?"

"Yes," Air Temple Island blurted.

"And now she is angry with you because of that?"

"Yes."

Fire Nation frowned. "Why am I supposed to be mad? Or intent on killing you?"

"Um…because your daughter," Air Temple started, but was cut off by Fire Nation raising his hand.

"You said no," Fire Nation explained. "And while I will now be watching you like an eagle-hawk, I see no reason to kill you. Yet. Unless you say yes. Also, I'll be having a talk with my daughter after telling her why I'm here. Where is she?"

"Courtyard, sir," Air Temple pointed to the house. "Tending the flowers. I'll…I'll go meditate or something, sir."

"Do that," Fire Nation advised. Air Temple Island gave a stiff bow, then dashed off. Fire Nation watched him go, bemused. He would castrate the boy if anything happened to United Republic, that was a given, but he took a moment to thank his lucky stars that his daughter had at least chosen a man that was too embarrassed to do more than kiss her and hold her hand. If Omashu had caught United Republic's eye…no, that wasn't a good thing to think about. Suffice to say, Fire Nation was _not_ ready to be a grandfather.

He opened the front door of the house and stepped inside. United Republic never used a lock on her door, a reflection of her policy of free immigration in the mortal world. Fire Nation worried that she was opening her home up to potential vandalism or theft, but as she pointed out, the Nations were the only permanent residents of Wanban. Visiting spirits rarely stayed long, and the spirits that came to Wanban weren't usually the sort to break into a house.

Navigating the interior of United Republic's house was a chore. It changed every time he visited, Fire Nation swore. He almost dreaded going to her mortal world city—if her Wanban house was hard to navigate, how much more difficult must a sprawling metropolis be? United Republic had filled her house with replicas of famous paintings, old pottery, and small plants, all placed to maximize the interior's aesthetic appeal. The decorations also served to help distinguish different parts of the house from others: there were more paintings of farmers and cooks near the kitchen, more pots and plants near the outer reaches of the house, etc. Fire Nation passed a window with a box of miniature roses growing on the sill, and paused to admire the small flowers. Air Temple Island had taught United Republic the secrets of being a good gardener, at least.

After ten minutes of confused wandering, Fire Nation found a door that led to the courtyard porch. A roof covered the wood-floored porch, sheltering it from rain, and a walkway extended on either side of the porch to encompass the courtyard. Several other doors led into the house from the walkway, all of them closed.

United Republic was kneeling down in front of some flower bushes on the far right of the courtyard with a pair of pruning shears in her hands, carefully clipping off branches. The bush was just starting to put out buds, a sign of the coming spring. Fire Nation stepped off the porch onto a gravel path, and started to walk towards his daughter. She heard his footsteps and glanced up, face set in a blank, vaguely disapproving look. Once she saw who it was, she started and jumped to her feet.

She looked a lot like her mother, Fire Nation noted. Her hair, brown when she was a child, had darkened as she aged until it was nearly black. The strong line of her jaw came from her father, but her snub nose and high forehead were taken almost perfectly from Earth Kingdom. What puzzled Fire Nation was her light brown eyes, completely unlike her father or her mother's. Brown was the most common eye color in both nations, but if human children inherited all of their physical features from their parents, why shouldn't the same apply to Nation children?

"Father!" the young woman cried. "I didn't expect…um, hi. What are you doing here?" She looked down, realized she was still holding her pruning shears, and tossed them onto the ground. "Mother sent me a letter, but I didn't expect you so soon…she said you wanted to talk to Southern Water Tribe, so I thought it would be a few days before you…"

Fire Nation held up a hand before United Republic could go any further. "Does this surprise at seeing me have anything to do with Air Temple Island being so nervous when I met him out front?"

"You-he-_what_?" United Republic paled. "Um. Um. Um, we had…a fight…"

"He mentioned," Fire Nation gave her a sweet smile. "But we'll talk about that in a moment." He dropped the smile, and drilled his daughter with a serious look. "And we will talk."

"Yessir," United Republic hung her head and fidgeted. She had thick gloves on to protect her hands from the sharp tools used in gardening, and as she shifted her weight from foot to foot she slowly started to work the gloves off.

"As for why I'm here," Fire Nation continued, "I'd like to ask you to accompany me to the Southern Water Tribe." United Republic's head shot up, her mouth already open to speak, but her father shook his head and she kept silent. "You know Southern Water Tribe doesn't like me, and you know why. I thought that if you came along, she might be more willing to sit down and talk."

"That makes sense," United Republic frowned in thought. "I've been on good terms with South for years, ever since the Avatar from her people helped work things out in my home…"

"For which I am ever thankful," Fire Nation dipped his head. "Your house was a mess then. So, will you go with me?"

The young woman blinked. "Of course I will, Dad. You have to ask?"

With a casual shrug, Fire Nation replied, "It's polite to ask. And…" his mouth turned down into a near-frown, as his eyebrows drew down, "it seems you and Air Temple Island are getting quite comfortable."

United Republic tensed, drawing herself in to appear smaller. "I…uh, I can explain…"

"You'd better."


	53. Again

**Well, here's 53. It's a bit early, yes, but there are two reasons for that: 1. I'm ahead in my writing schedule, and 2. It's my birthday, and I subscribe to the hobbit custom of giving other people gifts. Now I'm going to go sleep. I need to be up at 7 tomorrow...**

* * *

The Nations were gathered around a table in a conference room, studying stacks of paper before them. Iran and Iraq had gotten their bosses to send them some of their paperwork, and were alternating between that and going over reports from the Afghani military. Pakistan had disappeared half an hour ago to answer a phone call: she walked back into the room holding a file stuffed with papers. Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan glanced up when they heard her approach, and looked back down at their work once they saw who it was. America had fallen asleep, a half-eaten burger to his right and a load of paperwork to his left.

_Whump._ America shot upright, jolted awake. "I wasn't sleeping, I was resting my eyes, sir," he asserted. Then he blinked. "Oh. This…isn't the White House."

"My place," Pakistan ignored America, patting the thick file she had just dropped onto the table. "They're at my place." She paused, and added, "Israel, you're too jumpy."

"You startled me," Israel scowled. She bent over and picked up her chair, which had fallen when she leapt to her feet. The sudden noise of the file hitting the table had startled Israel, and her automatic reaction now earned her confused looks from the other Nations.

"What do you mean, your place?" Saudi Arabia asked Pakistan, drawing everyone's attention back to her.

"I received a report from a station on my border with Afghanistan," Pakistan opened the file and took out a sheet of paper. "It states that a group of men and women crossed the border from Afghanistan to Pakistan three days after the group of the people we believe to be terrorists entered Afghanistan. What caught the attention of one guard was that a woman in the group, who was sleeping in the back of a truck, had pale skin."

"Are we sure this is the same group that crossed the Afghani border?" Iran folded his hands in front of him.

"When I first got the report, I emailed pictures from surveillance cameras at the Afghani border to the station that processed this new group and had facial recognition comparisons done with pictures from my border station," Pakistan replied. "Three of the men from the latest group are 78% matches to men at the Afghani border. Another man has the same scar as a man from the Afghani border, though he never got his face captured on camera at my border."

"At least it's a lead," Iraq sighed. "Can you get your government to make a follow-up check before we go haring off, though?"

"What? Why check? If we know it's them, why don't we go now?" America asked.

"Going off without knowing if we're right or not is how conflicts start, America," Iran reminded him. "We can't afford to make mistakes—tipping off the terrorists that we're looking for them might have serious consequences for the hostage. I don't want that on my conscience, do you?"

"He's right, America," Israel agreed. "It's best if we follow this up from here. Pakistan, do you know where the group that crossed the border went?"

"Men from my government are working on it now," Pakistan put the paper in her hands back in the file. "And I've got my house staff preparing rooms for all of you. Iran, Iraq, you two will have to share, I only have four guest rooms."

Afghanistan dropped his head into his hands. "You're making me sleep outside, aren't you?"

"Did you honestly think I wouldn't?" Pakistan feigned surprise. Or…she may have been sincere. America didn't pay enough attention to figure it out.

As Pakistan and Afghanistan devolved into their usual bickering, America quietly made his way out of the room. Saudi Arabia and Israel definitely noticed him go, but neither drew attention to it. Iran might have seen, but Pakistan and Afghanistan were turning to Iran and his brother for support, demanding his immediate attention.

Once he was out of the conference room, America found his way to a public phone. He checked his watch—it was fifteen minutes later than he'd hoped. Maybe he shouldn't have fallen asleep at the table in the conference room.

Regardless of the delays, he was there now. America picked up the phone and dialed a number he had memorized, then held the phone to his ear and listened to it ring. Several government officials walking by raised eyebrows at a young American (the flag patch on his jacket's shoulder gave it away) in one of Kabul's major government buildings.

On the third ring, the other line picked up. "Moshimoshi, this is Japan," the voice on the other end of the line crackled. "Who is calling?"

"Japan, it's America," America twirled the phone cord around his finger. "How're you holding up?"

"Oh, America, hello. I am doing very well," Japan replied. "The cleanup after the nuclear meltdown has been a chore, but my people are pulling together quite well. Fukushima in particular was hit hard, but he is recovering now."

"Has Prussia stopped by to help again?" America asked. "He was talking about doing that after the meeting earlier this month. Once I finish up what I'm doing here, I may stop by as well."

"No, Germany has kept him busy," Japan answered. "I am very thankful you two personally came to help, but I do not believe I need more assistance. My own people can do so quite well."

"Okay," America grinned. "We'd probably get distracted by a maid café again anyways."

"Hai."

"So, I called to ask you about that thing you've been helping me with," America continued. He glanced around furtively, then lowered his voice. "How has its progress been going? Have you had to postpone development because of the meltdown?"

"Development is still underway," Japan answered. "Many of the technicians were moved off the project because of the incident, but those still working on it are making excellent progress."

"Awesome! Will it be ready on time?" America asked eagerly.

"I'm afraid not," Japan sighed. "The loss of manpower has delayed overall progress, and I cannot ask the men left to work more than they are now."

"Oh. Okay," America's cheerful mood dipped. He recovered with typical American speed, and inquired, "When will it be ready for testing on the new schedule?"

"By the early fall," Japan hesitated, "but I do not know if that is a safe estimate. With less workers, there are also less people to catch mistakes. We might do better to give it a full year before we begin beta-testing."

"I'm not sure if I can wait that long," America scratched his cheek. "We're going to attend World W Academy June through August, aren't we? I wanted to do the testing before we go."

"That is the schedule my boss has given me, yes," Japan agreed. "If production continues at this rate, the system will be finished in September. Provided it agrees with you, we could do the beta testing after completing our term at the Academy."

"I'll never get why our bosses make us attend a school," America commented. "But yeah, I suppose I can handle waiting until after we're done at the Academy. It'll just give me something to look forward to, won't it?"

"It will indeed." There was a tapping sound from the other side of the line, but before America could ask what it was, Japan started talking again. "I am sending an e-mail to the project's head, asking him to prepare for beta testers in September."

"Thanks!" America grinned. "Oh, and hey, since you're worried about not having enough manpower, want me to see if some of my experts can help you out? It'll be top secret, of course, but I can spread the word around at my universities."

"Are you sure?" Japan sounded anxious. "It would be very helpful of you to do so, but I would not want to impose."

"Nah, it's fine!" America chuckled. "Anything to get this project done faster. It'll be epic!"

* * *

A bronze washing basin crashed to the floor, the water inside splashing out onto the ground. The water flowed up into the air, formed into a thin blade, and slashed through a banner hanging on the wall. As the lower half of the banner sank to the ground, the water sliced it again, and again, and again, until mere shreds of fabric fluttered to rest on the metal floor.

Meiko panted, her excessive movements and uneven breathing lending to her exhaustion. With an unnecessarily exaggerated sweep of her arm, she threw the water hovering in the air against the wall. It splashed harmlessly against the metal, and pooled at the base of the wall.

"Are you done, or do you want to destroy stuff more?" Lanko raised an eyebrow. Meiko's eyes narrowed, and she raised her hand. The water on the floor followed the motion of her hand, but before she could whip it around to fly at Lanko, Duyao caught Meiko's wrist. Their eyes met, brown and blue, Meiko's gaze furious, Duyao's calm and serious.

Finally, Meiko relaxed her tensed muscles, and Duyao released her wrist. The Waterbender lowered her arm slowly, still staring at Duyao, until her hands rested limply against her sides.

"Rage will only cloud your judgment," Duyao spoke quietly. "And that banner was mine. Please stop destroying our room and attempt to be reasonable."

Abashed, Meiko looked away, unwilling to acknowledge that her tantrum had been a mistake. She strode over to the bunk bed on one side of the room and sat down. Duyao was left standing in the center of the room. Lanko leaned against the wall near the door.

"So, what now?" Lanko blew a gust of breath from his mouth, trying to get a stray lock of hair out of his face. "The Northern Water Tribe will be on guard against us sneaking in again. It won't be nearly as easy to infiltrate them a second time."

"We failed," Meiko spat. "Why would we even get a third try?"

"Don't be such a downer," Lanko waved a hand. "If at first you don't succeed, and all that. We just need to think up a new way to get in. Maybe if we detour around the city, and come at it from the north…"

"There will be guards there," Meiko grumbled. "We took that way out, remember?" Her teeth gritted as she was reminded of how they had escaped the Northern Water Tribe. To be knocked unconscious…to be carried out, only to nearly freeze in the icy wastes around the city…!

Lanko fell silent, thinking over their options. "Do we know what happened to Zuzhou?"

"All I know is he disappeared," Meiko looked away. "Which…was probably a good thing, at the time." She glanced at her brother. "Do you think he'll return?"

"If he does, I'm having a nice, long talk with him about how to treat my sister right," Lanko ground his right fist into his left palm. "There is a line, and he has crossed it."

"Zuzhou is a spirit," Meiko reminded her little brother. "He's a little out of your league, Lanko. You won't be able to touch him."

"I'll figure out a way!" Lanko asserted. "Nobody, _nobody,_ gets away with threatening my big sister! Not even sharding spirits! I…I'm gonna talk to a sage. They know how to deal with evil spirits, right? Do we have any? I don't wanna go to Gege, he's sort of scary."

In a predictable display of irony by the universe, the door swung open to reveal Gege. One of his eyebrows was raised, and judging from the amused expression on his face, he had heard Lanko's words about him being "sort of scary."

"I have been known to scare small children," the elder man joked before his expression sobered. "Meiko, Lanko, Duyao. Your mission was not a success." Meiko nodded, unwilling to look at Gege. "I read your report. You say the spirit was driven off by the Ocean Spirit."

"He threatened Meiko!" Lanko asserted. "I hope he never shows his face around here again, or _I'll_ threaten _him_!"

"Stay calm, Lanko," Gege advised. "He appeared in my office not long ago, raging over the failure of the mission. I convinced him none of you were at fault, and he is sorry that he attempted to harm Meiko."

"No he's not," Lanko crossed his arms.

"Well…he understands he should not have done so," Gege rubbed the back of his bald head. He didn't think "Zuzhou" had the capacity to feel sorry anymore, but pretending he did made it easier to work with the spirit. "That's the best we can hope for."

"Are we going to try infiltrating the city again?" Meiko asked dully. After the sound defeat her team had just suffered, she had little motivation to attempt another mission. Her eyes remained fixed on her feet, hands clasped in her lap.

"After what has happened, no," Gege shook his head. "Security in the city will be too tight. Instead, we're going to have you try a different approach. It will be dangerous, and difficult, but I trust that if anyone can accomplish it, it is you and your team, Meiko."

Perking up a little at the praise, Meiko's eyes shifted to look up at Gege through her eyelashes. Some of her bangs had fallen over her forehead, and brushed the tops of her eyes. "What is it?" she whispered.

Gege hesitated. Even he wasn't sure it could be accomplished. When Zuzhou proposed it, he'd thought the boy mad. Lanko would definitely scoff at the very thought. Duyao would accept it with her usual passivity, and Meiko would believe Gege simply because it was he who suggested it.

Sometimes Meiko's devotion to him made Gege uneasy. She believed he was always in the right, even when he might not be. Such faith…how could he deserve it? How had he managed to earn it in the first place?

"Enter the Spirit World," Gege let out with a deep sigh, "and track down Li Wu's soul from there."

As predicted, Lanko snorted in derision of the idea. Meiko's head snapped up to stare at Gege, her eyes wide with surprise and awe.

"How can we enter the Spirit World?" the Waterbender hastened to her feet, stepping towards Gege with eager curiosity. "Do you…do you have the power to…?"

"I cannot send you," Gege admitted. "But Zuzhou can." There was a flicker of unease in Meiko's eyes, quickly covered by that frightening trust. Duyao inclined her head, the best response Gege could hope for from her.

Lanko's reaction was less than positive. His face turned an angry red-purple at the mention of Zuzhou's name, his lips tightening with fury. Realizing that Lanko was close to an outburst—and with Lanko, outbursts were always violent and destructive—Gege continued speaking.

"We have had words, and the boy understands that he cannot threaten your team members," Gege explained. "I've made sure he knows that to do so will only make the rest of you more unwilling to continue the mission."

"Why's he so obsessed with this mission anyways?" Lanko scowled, his anger simmering. "What's a spirit care if one human lives or dies, even if she is royalty?"

"That's for him to explain, if he wants to," Gege gave Lanko a firm look. "I understand the boy made a mistake in dealing with you. He knows not to repeat it, and you need him to complete this mission." With a slight hesitation, Gege looked to Meiko. "As the leader of this team, your word is all I need to stop this mission," he informed her. "If you don't want to work with Zuzhou after he threatened you, I will understand. It already feels as if I am asking you too much by proposing this mission."

"My word can stop this mission?" Meiko blinked.

"I think, as the one threatened with death by the boy, you deserve that right," Gege nodded. Lanko groaned with frustration.

"Of course I believe we should take this mission," Meiko asserted. "If it can help us achieve our goal, what reason is there not to take it?"

"Sis, I don't think you're looking at the part of this that involves Zuzhou," Lanko turned to her. "He's going to completely forget what he promised as soon as we're not useful to him anymore. That kid is dangerous."

"We're going to need dangerous help," Meiko glanced down. "After that debacle in the Spirit Oasis…"

"You mean the debacle that resulted in him trying to strangle you?" Lanko crossed his arms.

"Yes. That debacle." Meiko rolled her eyes. "But Lanko, so long as we can accomplish our mission, I don't care if I die. I've understood that my life is in danger every time we go on a mission, and I don't care. All that matters is serving the Tóngyī Shìjie."

"Meiko, I cannot tell you how pleased I am that you are so loyal, but perhaps you should take more time to consider the matter," Gege urged. "Don't rush into this blindly. Your life was endangered the last time you worked with Zuzhou, and if you were to die because I allowed you to work with him…" Gege gritted his teeth. It was killing him to even suggest that Meiko work with Zuzhou again, but what could he do? She needed a chance to redeem herself. If Gege didn't offer her one, she'd go find one herself, and take greater risks than this to do so.

"Sir." Meiko looked Gege in the eye. "There is nothing for me to think about. I live only to serve this cause…your cause."

Gege's throat constricted at her words. He looked to Lanko, who gave a grudging nod of agreement. Duyao inclined her head. "That settles that, then," Gege sighed. "I'll send Zuzhou when he comes by next."

As the leader of the Tóngyī Shìjiè walked out of the room, Lanko looked at his sister. "You may live to serve him," the warrior gesture after Gege, "but I live to protect you."

A thin-lipped smile wavered on Meiko's face. "I know."

* * *

Music drifted through a large house on the outskirts of Vienna. Inside the house, a man with dark hair and closed eyes was sitting at a piano, his hands moving smoothly over the keyboard. A small furrow in his forehead indicated his concentration, though the rest of his face was peaceful. If a fan of classical music were to listen in, they might recognize the music as Chopin.

Austria played Chopin when he was feeling angry or frustrated: both could be used to describe his present mood. Li, whom Austria was investigating with Germany, and who was also Austria's newly-hired maid, had been kidnapped by terrorists while delivering a package to America in the Middle East. Why America needed a toy soldier delivered in person, with extreme care taken during transport, was beyond Austria's understanding. Most of what America did was beyond Austria's understanding. The young Nation's actions had been known to trigger long bouts of Chopin in the past.

But he had really done it this time. Getting Austria's maid kidnapped? Austria struck a wrong note, and the mistake made him press the keys harder. His teeth gritted as he mulled over America's last phone call to him. The search was going slow, with no end in the foreseeable future. That stupid, stupid America…!

Of course, much as Austria hated to admit it, part of his anger came from the fact that Li wasn't around to be questioned. The month was slipping by fast, and Austria had hoped for answers during it. Where was Li really from? Why was she lying? She didn't seem like the criminal sort, and her story of being in the wrong place at the wrong time seemed sincere, but there was so much about her that didn't add up.

Speaking of the investigation, wasn't Germany supposed to come over and discuss his findings soon? A glance at the clock told Austria that it was already past noon. His stomach grumbled in confirmation, and Austria allowed the music to trail off. He had expected to miss lunch while playing—it wasn't exactly rare for him to do so—and had made himself a sandwich before going to his music room. The sandwich was in his fridge now—he would eat it, then see if he could bring himself to do some paperwork before Germany arrived.

As he was eating the sandwich, Austria was hit with a wave of nostalgia. He got them, occasionally, with more time in between each one as the years passed. It was just…lonely, living in this house, with nobody else around. Centuries ago, there were live-in servants, and the other Nations under his control, like Italy and Hungary.

Hungary…the thought of her triggered a stab of regret. Their separation had been a condition of the Treaty of Versailles, a painful affair for them both. Austria knew he still had feelings for her, and he thought she still had feelings for him, but…after their divorce…it was hard to approach his former wife on the subject. During their marriage they had slowly realized how deeply in love they were, and just when they had finally started to enjoy their life together, World War One began, then was lost.

If Hungary was still his wife—if she was still living with him at all—she would have let him know the moment it was lunchtime, and had something delicious prepared and on the table. They would have spent a quiet meal together, and then he would have retired to his music room before wandering out just in time to make supper for them both. Evenings would be filled with the paperwork that he neglected during the day, and once it was done he would play something soothing for his wife before bed.

Strange, Austria thought as he finished his sandwich and put the plate in the dishwasher. Sometimes he felt like the house wasn't empty at all, but everyone was just in their rooms being quiet. At times he almost thought the floorboards were creaking as someone was walking down the hallway…

…Wait a minute. The floorboards _were_ creaking as someone walked down the hallway. And since there was only one person who did that, Austria didn't need to turn around as that person reached the kitchen door.

"Good afternoon," Austria sighed. "Is there any reason why you couldn't ring the doorbell first?"

"You never lock your door," Prussia shrugged as he leaned against the doorframe. "I figure that's an open invitation. If you don't want me to stop by, use your lock!"

"What if I expect the people I know to respect me enough to knock before entering?" Austria suggested, a bit irritated at Prussia's presence.

"Then you clearly aren't taking me into consideration," Prussia chuckled. Austria rolled his eyes—it seemed centuries of animosity between him and Prussia had devolved into Prussia's current-day campaign to annoy Austria into submission. The sad thing was, it had a chance of working.

"Germany is due to come over soon," Austria glanced sideways at Prussia, narrowing his eyes. "Does he know you're here?"

"Nope," Prussia's gaze roamed around the kitchen, taking in the new features. "First time I've seen your kitchen since your oven exploded. Don't suppose you know why that happened?"

"It's a complete mystery," Austria shook his head. "The police conducted an investigation, and found nothing that could explain what happened. In the end, they assumed it was an overload, but that explanation doesn't quite satisfy me."

"West probably won't like it either," Prussia inclined his head in agreement. "He's so picky about everything, you know? Do you have any speculation on what could have happened?"

"I don't care to speculate," Austria frowned. "And since you're here, I suppose I should offer you some tea?"

"Nah, but I'll take beer if you have it," Prussia grinned, knowing full well that Austria kept several bottles in the fridge at all times for when Prussia showed up without warning. Austria gestured to the fridge, a brand-new and high-tech model, which was his way of telling Prussia to help himself. And so Prussia did.

There was a minute of silence as Prussia retrieved and opened his beer bottle, then took a long drink. He sighed and smacked his lips as he lowered the bottle, thoroughly pleased. Austria considered getting a drink for himself, but didn't know what he wanted. Water, maybe? Were there any bottles in the fridge? Maybe he should go grocery shopping soon…

"Oh, I'd forgotten, but a question occurred to me while I was on my here," Prussia spoke up. "What's Li going to do when we go to the Academy in June? Are you gonna leave her here, on her own?"

"Leave her alone in my house? Definitely not," Austria shuddered at the thought. "I'm making arrangements with my boss to have her brought to the Academy with us."

"Did you tell him about Li's circumstances?" Prussia asked before taking a swig of his beer.

"Of course not," Austria scoffed. "For starters, I don't think he'd believe me. Normal humans are much less accepting of strange occurrences than us Nations. No, he thinks she's an American that I'm looking after, related to a friend of mine from a century or so ago. He also seems to think I only want her around because I'm lonely."

"Your house is pretty big," Prussia remarked. "I guess it'd be easy to get lonely here."

"Yes, if I were the type to become lonely easily," Austria brushed Prussia's remark, and the implied question, aside. Of course Austria wasn't lonely. That had nothing to do with why he had offered to let Li stay here. Nothing at all.

"So, Li's coming to the Academy with us? That'll be fun," Prussia set his beer on the counter. "Do you think she'll be rescued soon?"

"If she isn't, I will hunt America down and play angry music for him personally," Austria felt his anger at the careless young Nation rise to the surface. "Honestly, such a childish person…how is he a world power?"

"I taught him how to fight," Prussia suggested. "Maybe that has something to do with it?"

"Yes," Austria's voice dripped with sarcasm, "because clearly it's all thanks to you and your 'awesomeness.'"

"I'm not saying I taught him everything he knows," Prussia laughed. "But he does have a lot of people descended from me and West's place. That's gotta have some effect on him, right?"

"What sort of effect are you thinking about?" Austria decided on a glass of water, and opened a cupboard to retrieve a cup.

"Hard work and dedication!" Prussia paused. "Though, I think he might have gotten some of Italy's personality from the Italian immigrants. Neither of them are very good at reading the mood."

"I must agree with you there," Austria closed the cupboard and went to the sink, where he turned on the cold water faucet and water purifier. "However much it pains me to agree with you…now, was there anything else you wanted, or will you be going now?"

"Can't I stick around until West gets here?" Prussia suggested. "I forgot to get enough money for a train ride back to Berlin, so unless you want me staying in Vienna tonight…"

"Absolutely not!" Austria scowled, holding his cup under the stream of cold water in the sink. Tap water wasn't his first choice, even with the purifier, but Prussia was only a few feet away from the refrigerator, and Austria wouldn't go near him for a million euros.


	54. Questions

**So sorry it's taken this long for another chapter! I was really busy for a while, and just last night I was up til one doing physical inventory for a store I'm hoping to land a job at. This is the third to last chapter of the arc, so far as I know. Do not own Hetalia or Avatar, hoping you enjoy!**

* * *

The door to Li's room—she was having a hard time thinking of it as a cell, because in her experience cells didn't have nice beds or sofas—swung open with a loud creak of its hinges. Li had been dozing on the couch, and immediately sprang to full awareness at the sound. Two men armed with guns entered, and one of them gestured for Li to stand up.

_What now?_ Li asked Ru-voice.

_Do what they want, see what happens_, came the reply. _And you're asking the voice in your head for advice _now_? Really?_

"Come with us," the guard spoke, his words heavily-accented words. Unsure if she should trust them, and wary of her leg, Li rose to her feet. She winced as she put too much pressure on her wounded leg, gritting her teeth so she wouldn't give away how much it hurt to her captors. The stronger she appeared, the better: any perceived weakness could be an opening for them to exploit.

"Where are we going?" Li asked the moment she was on her feet. Neither guard responded, but they gestured with their guns for her to follow them. Hesitant, partially because walking hurt her leg, Li took a few steps forward. A hiss of breath escaped her lips at the ensuing pain, and she screwed her eyes shut to focus on blocking out the fire in her thigh.

"Hurry up!" someone snapped from outside the door. Li gritted her teeth against further slips and resolutely set her foot forward. The pain was bad, but bearable. She knew old soldiers who had talked about fighting with injuries worse than hers. If they could brave it, so could she.

Her guards didn't seem to think Li was walking fast enough, so they lowered their guns, grabbed her arms, and began to force-march Li out of her room and down a hallway. The pace they set was fast, with only their firm grips on Li's arms keeping her from stumbling. She cried out when one of them dug his nails into her arm and drew blood, then again as she put too much pressure on her injured leg and almost collapsed.

"Where are we going?" Li tried to get them to talk. Neither answered. The building they were in didn't seem too large, as the hallways were short and turned often. Once they went down a flight of stairs, and twice they went up: eventually they emerged into the open air.

So long spent locked in a cell made the sunlight feel brighter than usual to Li, who shut her eyes against the glare. The warmth of the sun on her skin was a familiar, missed feeling. If she could have, Li would have lingered, absorbing the sun's warmth and letting its comforting presence burn away her unease. But the guards urged her on, and Li was forced towards a nearby building.

_Quick, take note of where you are_, Ru-voice advised. Li's eyes darted around, trying to take in as many details as possible before she was shoved into the other building. It looked like she was in a compound, with high walls and guards patrolling everywhere. The buildings were ramshackle, with rough outer walls and few windows. Nothing more registered with Li before she was inside again, being led down another short hallway and up a pair of stairs.

They stopped in front of an opening in the wall, hung with a few curtains. One guard called something in that foreign language they all spoke, and someone beyond the curtain responded. "Get in," the guards released Li and shoved her towards the doorway. Caught by surprise, Li stumbled forward, landing awkwardly on her injured leg.

"Dammit!" Li swore, clutching her leg. Pain throbbed outwards from the healing wound. Tears welled up in her eyes, instinctive reactions to the discomfort and hurt. So distracted was Li by the pain, she failed to notice anything about her surroundings until a man spoke.

"Welcome." Li's head jerked up. She saw an old man, his face tanned and wrinkled, with a long white beard. He had a piece of cloth wrapped around his head, the color matching that of his long robe. His legs were crossed, and he rested against a small pile of pillows. Two more men, both armed with guns, flanked the older man. A glance at the door confirmed that the two men who had escorted Li there hadn't followed her in. The old man was looking at her with disdain.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Li pulled her legs out from under her, keeping her eyes fixed on the old man. Everything in the room seemed to be centered around him. He was the man in charge, and thus, the man to watch.

"Can't you guess?" the old man's lips curled up. He rested his chin on one hand. The other hand picked up a small cup from a tray beside him. Instead of drinking, he swirled the liquid in the cup around.

Li's eyes were drawn to a window on the left side of the wall. Light was streaming in at a low angle—she thought, from the sun's position, it was nearly sunset. That was bad for her, if things turned ugly. Firebenders gained strength as the sun rose, and lost it as the sun set. Obviously it was just a coincidence that they had chosen to take her here now, when she was losing the sun's boost in strength, but it was an unnerving coincidence.

Noticing Li's gaze, the old man nodded. "It's nearly nighttime." He raised the cup to his lips and drank before continuing. "Which means it's morning in America."

"So?" Li rubbed her leg in an attempt to dull the pain. It wasn't very effective, but it gave her hands something to do and her brain an outlet for the nervous energy building up in her body. She experienced a brief moment when she thought she might burst, and then it passed, leaving Li with a strange sense of detachment. The sensation was hard to describe…like she was watching herself from someplace else, a numbness spreading through her body and dulling all her senses.

"Do you know what time it is in your home?" the man stroked his long beard.

"The exact time? No," Li shifted backwards. Something about this old man made Li uneasy.

"Sad. Well, what can you tell me about your home?"

_You're screwed_, Ru-voice observed._ Lie like your life depends on it. _

"Uh…well, it's in America…" Li's mind raced. Her time in New York had been spent in America's penthouse, watching movies and television or playing games. "New York City is pretty big. I don't get out much, I spend a lot of time inside."

"Doing what?"

"Oh…movies, television, video games," Li searched her memory for what she knew of America. "I just got a new Playstation 3." Well, America had, but they didn't need to know that.

Her answers satisfied the old man, as he stopped asking questions and began to study Li. She could feel his gaze as it moved over her, real as a physical touch. The man's eyes lingered on Li's injured leg, the bandage stained red. "Does that hurt?" he gestured to her leg.

Li glanced down at it. "Not so much," she lied.

_Make eye contact when you lie, and sound firm_, Ru-voice reminded her. Li lifted her head and stared the man in the eye.

"It's only bad when someone touches it," Li removed her hands from her leg and lifted her gaze. "Or when I fall on it. The doctor did a good job."

"Did he, now," the man's eyes narrowed. "How quickly are you healing?"

Crap. "Fast enough," Li's mind scrambled to recall if a Nation had ever mentioned healing at a different rate than humans. She didn't think so? Um, Italy had mentioned that their economy going bad could give them a cold? Well, vagueness was best, right? "I've had worse."

"Really? I imagine you must have." The man's forehead furrowed slightly. His hands were clasped in front of him, the thumbs tapping against each other. Li had no idea what he was thinking, and that scared her.

Should she speak up? Would a Nation speak up? Her leg hurt. Li's palms were sweaty, her heart was beating fast, and her stomach felt heavier than a boulder. Ru-voice wasn't telling her anything. This was exactly the sort of situation Ru had tried to prepare Li for her whole life, but Li was too scared to think straight. Doubts and fears and worries swirled through her mind, barely hidden under a calm exterior.

Li realized she was staring at the floor. Her eyes should be on the leader. She lifted her gaze. The man was studying her, his dark eyes intense. Had she ever seen eyes that dark? They frightened her, made her blood freeze. Even Gege's eyes weren't as dark.

Even worse was knowing that she was at the mercy of these people, this man with the dark eyes. Li sat on the cold floor shivering, wondering if she could keep up the act, knowing she was terrible at lying and slightly amazed she'd managed to keep them believing her this long.

Her thoughts turned to her friends, the ones in her world. She had never missed them more than in that moment. Their faces were clear in her mind. Though the Fire Nation put little emphasis on religion, Li sent a silent prayer to the spirits Pele and Agni, a plea to see her friends before she died.

Li's vision blurred. She wiped at her eyes, but the tears came despite her best efforts, and before she knew it she was crying her eyes out.

The man looked strange when Li started crying. He glanced behind Li and nodded. Someone seized Li and pulled her to her feet, bruising her shoulders in the process. Her leg twisted just as she was set on her feet, sending waves of pain up Li's body. When the inevitable yelp came, the man's lips twitched upwards.

That was when the fire sparked. Li suddenly stopped feeling sorry for herself, and started getting angry. Who was this man to laugh at her pain? If she was still in her world, he would be crawling on the ground begging for her forgiveness. She was a Princess of the Fire Nation, and she would not be laughed at like this!

It was clear when her demeanor changed. Before she was pale, drawn in on herself. Then, without warning, blood rushed to her cheeks. Her fists clenched. Though it was already warm in the room, the temperature rose to stifling. Li could feel the heat in her hands, warmth spreading out from the inner fire of her heart.

But the flames were fueled by anger, and even before she created a single lick of fire, she knew she could not control it. Every part of her screamed to burn this place and everyone inside until ashes were all that remained. Nothing would make her happier.

_Burn them, and you'll die in the blaze, with all the innocent people in this building_, Ru-voice spoke up at last. Her words were exactly what Ru would have said, exactly when she would have said it.

_Ru._ A tendril of guilt wormed into Li's thoughts. It would disappoint Ru if she heard that Li foolishly killed herself by letting her emotions spiral out of control. Hadn't Ru taught Li that control of one's emotions was everything? Not just in Firebending, but in politics, in mourning, in fighting an enemy.

With a calming breath, Li marshaled her emotions and quelled her anger. The room's temperature dropped. In front of Li, the old man with dark eyes seemed satisfied. He had noticed how Li's anger made the room heat up, Li realized. Had he been provoking her, hoping her fear or anger might show something unnatural about her that would affirm her status as a Nation?

"Are you hungry?" Li blinked at the old man's question. What did he care? "We can arrange for a meal now, if you would like."

"No thank you," Li automatically declined. Eating alone in her cell was one thing: eating with her captors was another. There was an inherent risk in both options, and turning down the latter option might not be a good idea, but Li preferred eating alone to eating with people she didn't know. That went double for when the people she didn't know were her captors.

"Very well," the man nodded. "Do you have any requests for your next meal?"

Li paused. America seemed to thrive on what he called "junk food," which Li found tasteless at best. These men thought Li was the personification of New York. Asking for something America would eat was the safest bet. Maybe she could request pizza? Of all America's favorites, that was the one Li preferred. But America's favorite was burgers from McDonald's, with lettuce and tomatoes and bacon and extra pickles.

She needed to make a decision fast. "A Big Mac," she suggested to the old man. His lips twitched upwards again. Emboldened at the thought that she had given a good answer, Li continued. "And can you make it a large? With extra everything? Maybe ice cream on the side?"

A small, smug smile broke out across the man's face. "There is no McDonald's here," he informed Li. "We are many miles away from the nearest one."

"Oh." Li forced a crestfallen look onto her face. "Then…just a burger?" Pause, and… "With ice cream? And a large soda?" They were buying it. Somehow, Li was pulling it off.

"Of course, of course," the old man waved a hand. "Why don't you go back to your room now? We can speak once your leg is healed more. Clearly you are in no state to answer questions now."

As the guards marched Li out, helping keep her weight off her bad leg, she felt optimistic. Nobody had killed her, and she'd kept herself from killing everyone. It looked like they were buying it. She was doing a good job of this.

Once she was out of the room, Osama bin Laden turned to the man on his left. In Arabic, he said, "Investigate her. Find out if she is indeed the American state of New York."

"What if she isn't?" the guard asked, also in Arabic. Osama narrowed his eyes.

"If she isn't, find out what she really is. And if she is not a Nation, dispose of her."

* * *

At the very edge of the Middle East sits Pakistan. It shares a good portion of its border with India: indeed, Pakistan used to _be_ a part of India. A concentration of Muslims in the area led to a string of riots and unrest, and eventually the formation of a new Nation, in the late 1940s.

Pakistan might have been young, but she didn't let that stop her from disrespecting her elders: Afghanistan was on the verge of declaring war by the time they arrived in her capital of Islamabad. America was too busy laughing over how her capital's name could, in the English language, be mangled into sounding like "Islam bad." The other Middle Eastern nations were not as amused by America's observation as he was. Saudi Arabia had long since given up trying to explain to America that "abad" was an Urdu word meaning "inhabited place or city."

Though the Nations were tired and the day was warm, they boarded two government cars and drove into the city. They stopped at the Saudi-Pak Tower, a tall building with few windows and traditional Islamic blue tile works on the outer walls. "Hey, this goes way up!" America noted as the Nations passed through the front doors. "I didn't know you guys had anything taller than three stories!"

"Of course you didn't," Saudi Arabia rolled his eyes. "Pakistan actually has some very amazing architecture in the city. Perhaps we could look around when we have a spare moment, or after we have rescued the human. You would be amazed at how lovely the Shah Faisal Mosque is." The Nations walked right past the security guards. Having been warned of the arrival of seven important "people," the guards let them go.

"You're only saying that because your king helped _build_ the mosque," Pakistan waved the flattery off as she led the group to an elevator. "But if we do go sightseeing, America and Afghanistan aren't invited. They'll do something stupid and cause havoc in my capital."

"Hey!" Afghanistan protested. "I'm not an idiot! I know how to sightsee without destroying things!"

"Really? I'm sorry, I must have been thinking of America," Pakistan retorted. She pressed the elevator's "up" button, and the door slid open. "You're still not invited." At a loss for words, Afghanistan stuck his tongue out at his neighbor. Pakistan responded by blowing a raspberry. Saudi Arabia, knowing they would go on for hours if not stopped, stepped between the two.

"Perhaps we should go to the office space Pakistan's government has rented us," he suggested. "America, an officer from your military is supposed to meet us there, if I remember correctly?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," America nodded. "He has all of our intelligence, as well as some paperwork my boss had sent over."

"Good, good." Saudi Arabia herded the Nations into the small elevator. Afghanistan started to protest as he was pressed against Pakistan, but was drowned out by Pakistan's shriek as Iran, who had raised his hand to shove Iraq away, accidentally groped her when Israel bumped into him. The door slid closed just as Pakistan slugged Iran in the face. He fell backwards against Israel, accidentally groping her as well. Israel, not one to punch people over an accident, instead kneed Iran between the legs.

Here Iraq, taking offense at the abuse Iran was suffering, seized Israel by the shoulders. "Stop that!" he shouted. America, who found all the activity funny, started to laugh. Saudi Arabia felt the beginnings of a headache.

By the time the elevator reached the top floor, it was the site of a near-brawl. Pakistan and Israel seemed to be dominating the fight, with Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan on the losing side. Saudi Arabia had pressed himself into a corner of the elevator: America had done the same. The doors slid open just as Iran and Iraq tossed Afghanistan at them: he flew out and hit the floor with an "Oof!"

Seeing possible routes of escape, or at least more room to fight in, Iran, Iraq, Israel, and Pakistan surged out after Afghanistan. Two Asian men stepped out of an office down the hall, saw the fighting, and promptly stepped back into the office.

"You could help _stop_ them," Saudi Arabia suggested to America.

"What? Why would you want them to stop? This is hilarious!" America was nearly doubled over with laughter. Saudi Arabia grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him out of the elevator, stopping the doors from closing with one hand on the way. Once in the hallway, the five brawling Nations at his feet, he released America and resorted to a time-tested method of breaking up a fight. He yelled at the participants and separated them by force.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Saudi Arabia roared, picking up Iran and Afghanistan. Pakistan, Israel, and Iraq froze where they were. "Are you all children?!" Saudi Arabia continued. "What would your bosses say if they saw you?! Is America's attitude contagious?!"

"Haha—hey!" America frowned. "I don't act like that!"

"You would if someone _groped you_," Pakistan glared at Iran. "What was that about, anyways?!"

"I was trying to push Iraq, and someone bumped into me!" Iran protested. "Then you punched me, and I fell, and things got out of hand! Thanks for helping me out, by the way," Iran added to his brother. "Sorry I was going to push you."

"That's okay, I understand," Iraq shrugged. "It's probably my fault this started anyways."

"I blame Pakistan and her violent nature," Afghanistan spoke up. Saudi Arabia shook him by the collar. "Woah!"

"Seriously, I don't start random fights for no good reason," America persevered.

"I beg to differ," Iraq grumbled.

"Shut up, that was justified," America retorted.

"Quiet, both of you!" Saudi Arabia shook Iran and Afghanistan in lieu of Iraq and America. "Will you behave long enough for us to go into the office? It's a disgrace to your people, that you act like children!"

"Sorry," Israel lowered her gaze to her feet. "We are acting like kids."

"Hey! You were all for it a minute ago!" Pakistan shouted. "Stop acting like a mature adult now!"

"Maybe I am a mature adult," Israel suggested. Afghanistan snorted. "I heard that."

"Office. Now," Saudi Arabia shoved Iran and Afghanistan in the direction of the office. "America, Israel, Pakistan, Iraq, if you begin to fight amongst yourselves, so help me I will beat you over the head with Iran."

"Sir, I have a problem with that plan, and—" Saudi Arabia fixed Iran with his best glare. "…Shutting up now." With Saudi Arabia force-marching them, the Nations made their way to the office. The fight had messed up the clothing of all involved, as well as given Israel a split lip and Afghanistan a black eye. Pakistan was limping.

Inside the office, a man in a US Marine uniform was waiting. He stood next to a water machine, several files stuffed under his arm. When the door opened, he started to greet the first person he saw…only to stop in confusion as Saudi Arabia pushed Iran and Afghanistan in. The other Nations filed in after them, Iraq staying as far away from the women as possible.

"Hey dude!" America greeted the Marine. "Those the intelligence files we asked for?"

"Yessir," the Marine answered. He didn't know about the Nations, but some part of him recognized America as a figure of authority. Not military authority, exactly, but _an_ authority. So he held out the files.

It was Saudi Arabia, the only member of the group that looked professional, who took the files. "Thank you," he acknowledged the Marine. "Was there anything else you had to give us?"

"Just my CO's best wishes," the Marine replied. "I understand this is about a kidnapping?"

"Yes, it is." Saudi Arabia handed all but the top file to the other Nations, then flipped open his file and started examining the contents. He didn't bother looking up as Marine shuffled his feet, clearly waiting for an explanation. Finally, Saudi Arabia glanced up. "Aren't you done?"

"So it seems," the Marine sighed. He made his way out, giving a final glance over his shoulder before the door closed. Pakistan was creeping up behind Afghanistan, ready to whack him over the head with her file.

Once Pakistan had been stopped and properly chastised, the Nations got down to business. Each one took a file and started to go through its contents: whenever someone found a piece of information they thought useful enough to share, they read it out and debated the merits. Nobody had found anything the group thought promising several hours later, until Iran spoke. "This might be something. An intelligence report about a compound fifty kilometers to the north of Islamabad. Earlier in the week, a truck was seen entering the compound with a small guard. Surveillance a day later saw a young woman with pale skin going from one building to another, then back to the original building in an hour."

"Pale skin? Meh…could be Li." Pakistan set her files down. "Saudi Arabia?"

"That's more than vague reports of increased guards and strange caravans in the night," Saudi Arabia agreed. "My question is, how do we know it's not some other woman with pale skin?"

"Right, I just have so many," Pakistan drawled.

"Li isn't the only white female in the world." That was America, brilliantly stating the obvious. "What if some other white woman was captured by these guys? They could have found someone else to use as a decoy, or used skin paint on a darker-skinned woman."

"True," Pakistan ceded, "but I like the way the report sounds. And what more do we have to go on?"

"I'll call some people, get more surveillance on that compound." America pulled out his phone. "And I'm going to ask for a team of SEALs in case we go in."

"Seals? Why not some of my Special Service Group?" Pakistan complained.

"America did start this mess." Iraq tapped his fingers on the table. "I'm all for letting him send in his people. That way, none of my citizens have to get hurt."

"And his SEALs are pretty good at what they do," Iran added. "Though I get the feeling my brother doesn't want to admit that."

"Hey!"

"Let's call a vote," Israel leaned forward. "All in favor of following up this lead, raise your hand?" Pakistan and America's hands immediately went up in the air. Iran's followed a moment later, followed by Iraq's. Afghanistan kept his down, since Pakistan's was up. Saudi Arabia hesitantly raised his hand.

"You're not raising your hand?" America asked Israel.

"I'm calling the vote. I'll only raise my hand if a tiebreaker is needed," Israel answered. "And it looks like we have a consensus, five to one. We follow up the lead."


	55. Cherish

_The calm before the storm is unbearable._ Of all the times to think of a movie quote, Israel was doing it just before attacking a suspected Taliban compound in northern Pakistan. A base camp had been set up just out of sight of the compound, the Black Hawk helicopters ready to go. Navy SEALs were checking equipment and chatting all around her, while she inspected her own firearms. The other Nations were scattered around the encampment, going over their weapons, inspecting their gear, making sure their bulletproof vests were on right, and antagonizing each other like adolescents. Pakistan and Afghanistan in particular were having quite the argument. Israel wondered when they were going to leap for each other's' throats.

Something in Israel's pocket beeped. She reached in and pulled out her phone. The touchscreen had to be unlocked: once that was done, Israel saw she had an email from her boss. That was curious. Her boss didn't have the time to send his Nation a casual text, so it must be work-related. Did she have paperwork waiting for her when she got back? Had she neglected her work too much?

A quick scan of the email's contents told Israel it wasn't her paperwork. "Alfred," she called, using America's human name. The SEALs around them didn't know about the Nations, and it was going to stay that way. "Alfred, you need to see this. Get over here."

"Wha?" America stood up and strode over. "Something important?" Saudi Arabia and Iran got up and went to see as well: after a moment, Iraq nudged Pakistan and pointed to Israel. Pakistan and Afghanistan postponed their argument to go see what everyone was looking at.

With five—no, six, Iraq had just joined them—people looking over her shoulders, Israel scrolled to the top of the message and began to read it aloud. She kept her voice soft, lest any of the SEALs overhear something they shouldn't, and made sure to keep an eye out for any curious humans.

"'Hadassah," the e-mail began with Israel's human name, "a recent intelligence report has led me to believe that I know how the terrorists who attacked the Tehran conference came to be aware of the existence of the Nations. The American military reported the disappearance of one Terrance Daniels two months ago: three days ago, he was recovered alive. His statement to the American military, which was shared with me, explains the attack.

"'It would seem that, in his youth, Mr. Daniels made the acquaintance of one Alfred F. Jones." Everyone's eyes turned to America briefly. He grinned and shrugged: Israel kept reading. "They had several brief encounters in New York over the course of a month before Mr. Daniels moved to Kentucky. Years later, while on a respite from his first tour in Iraq, Mr. Daniels encountered Mr. Jones once more. He was shocked to see that, despite the passage of ten years, Mr. Jones appeared the same as he had when they first met.

"'Mr. Daniels refrained from speaking with Mr. Jones at that time, but kept turning the incident over in his mind while preparing for his next tour of duty. While on a routine patrol, he and his companions were attacked by insurgents. Though his friends escaped, Mr. Daniels was captured and tortured. It was during the torture sessions that Mr. Daniels allowed his knowledge of Alfred F. Jones' curious case to slip.

"'This knowledge was naturally of immense interest to the insurgents. Mr. Daniels' part in the incident ends there. Speculation is all we have for what happened next. Whatever course of investigation the insurgents used, it led them to the realization that Alfred F. Jones has lived in the land of the United States of America since the days of the first English settlement, Jamestown.'"

"I was around about a hundred years before that, actually," America muttered.

"'Several captured insurgents have been induced to disclose more information about their proceedings once they realized Alfred's apparent immortality. They wiretapped several of his homes in New York, Washington DC, and Virginia. He called one Arthur Kirkland of England several times, mostly prank calls, before they realized that Mr. Jones and Mr. Kirkland referred to each other as 'America' and 'England,' respectively. Further research into Arthur Kirkland showed he had lived in England for as long as records existed, possibly longer.

"'Armed with the knowledge that at least two of these seemingly-immortal people existed, and that they referred to each other as countries, the insurgents began to investigate other countries. When they found that every world government had at least one seemingly-immortal dependent, one of them drew the conclusion that these people must be the personifications of the Nations themselves. This theory was originally ridiculed, but further wiretapping proved it the truth.

"Once the insurgents knew the Nations existed, they began to look for opportunities to abduct at least one. Alfred F. Jones phoned an Israeli woman called Hadassah—who proved to be you, Israel—and discussed an upcoming meeting'—wait a minute, I remember that call!" Israel exclaimed. She glanced up at America. "They were listening to that?!"

"Sounds like." Pakistan peered at Israel. "So we have both of you to blame for this."

"Hey, it was pure coincidence," America asserted. "They would have learned about us somehow after Daniels talked."

"It could just as easily have been an acquaintance of yours, Pakistan," Saudi Arabia pointed out. "In fact, I'm surprised they learned from an American. Many in my home know of my status."

"Israel, finish it up," Iran urged. "I want to know the rest."

"All right," Israel agreed. "'And discussed an upcoming meeting'…ah, 'to be held in Tehran soon. This gave the insurgents a clear target. They arranged for a group of their men to infiltrate the building disguised as janitors: weapons were smuggled in with boxes of cleaning supplies. When the time came for the attack, it was only the fortunate presence of the Austrian woman that prevented them from capturing you outright. The secret passage out of the conference room was originally a failsafe method of escape in case of attack: the insurgents learned of its existence and turned it to their own purposes.

"'I pray you remain safe while you are abroad, and ask that you not take any unnecessary risks. It is a wonderful thing to know that my Nation herself does not stand by as innocents are injured. This human is truly fortunate that you would go to save her yourself. When you return, you must tell me everything that has happened.

"'Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister.'"

"He thinks Li's Austrian?" Pakistan questioned. "Hope he doesn't talk to my boss about her, I told Raja she was an American."

"She does live with Austria," Israel shrugged.

"But she speaks American English." Pakistan stepped back and stretched, hands reaching over her head. "Plus America was the one who called her to Tehran in the first place."

Saudi Arabia sighed. "Wherever Li is from, it's not our business," he reminded the other Nations. "Now hurry and finish your preparations. The attack will commence soon."

"All right," Pakistan rolled her shoulders. "Don't have to tell me twice."

"Yeah!" America fist-pumped. "Time to be the hero!"

"Here we go again…" Iraq groaned.

* * *

"Ow! Freezing _leg_!" Li shouted as her leg folded under her weight. She caught herself on the couch, then maneuvered her way onto it, wincing as she did.

_Still can't walk across your cell without collapsing?_ Ru-voice spoke.

"Shut up," Li grumbled. Her patience with the voice in her head was wearing thinner by the second. At first Li had welcomed the voice, however worrying it was. Now she was fed up with it. Would she be this annoyed with Ru if Ru were actually here? Probably…Li had noticed that she thought more fondly of some people when she hadn't been around them for a while. Ru might be Li's oldest and dearest friend and protector, but even her presence could get tedious.

Ru-voice obligingly stopped talking, letting Li massage her leg in peace. The wound was healing slowly, too slowly for Li's liking. She would have killed for a Healer. If it hadn't been counter-productive, she would have cut off her leg for Ming.

But she had to make due with what she had, which was absolutely nothing. The lack of windows, and thus sunlight, was taking its toll on Li's mood. She wanted to feel the sun's warmth, to bathe her skin in its light. Her pale skin felt even paler without the sun. "Firebenders don't tan, they burn"…if Li got any paler, she'd look like a ghost. Even a sunburn was preferable to this!

Well, her leg hurt a little less now. Carefully pushing herself up, Li tested her weight and took a tentative step forward—

_**BOOM!**_

-just as the room shook. Li's wounded leg buckled underneath her. Bits of plaster rained down from the ceiling. She landed on her rear, avoiding further injury to her leg, and covered her head with her hands in case anything larger than a few flakes came off the ceiling. When a moment passed without anything hitting her, Li raised her head and looked around.

Nothing in her cell was damaged or fallen. Her bedsheets looked more rumpled than they had been, and a pillow was out of place, but that was all. People were shouting and running outside the room. On the very edge of Li's hearing was a dull roar.

What was going on?

The door to Li's cell crashed open, and two armed men burst in. "Stand up," one shouted. His friend didn't speak, but the way he held his gun told Li that the order wasn't optional.

"What's going on?" Li asked as she pushed herself up. "What was that?"

"No questions," the man snarled. "Get against the wall."

"Why?"

"Get against the wall!" he roared. His friend raised his gun.

Li's heart sank. They were going to kill her. Something had gone wrong, and they were going to kill her. She stumbled backwards. Her back hit the wall. A buzzing, tingling feeling spread through her body. The men pointed their guns at her…

And she reacted. In the split second that the men began to pull the triggers, Li ducked. Using the wall behind her for extra propulsion, she threw herself forward at the men's legs. Bullets ripped into the wall where Li's torso and head had been a moment earlier, then careened upwards at the ceiling as Li collided with the men's legs. Everyone fell to the floor in a heap.

Before the men could recover, Li pushed herself up. Part of her registered that her bad leg was aching: the rest was too focused on surviving to care. She delivered a swift kick to one man's crotch. He screamed and doubled over, curling into a fetal position.

The other man was faster. He sat up, his gun training on Li. "Die, bitch," he spat. In the part of her mind that was still thinking, Li noticed he had the same accent as England, and wondered if this man had spent some time in England's country before.

Li's leg was already drawn back to kick at this man. Dodging would have put her off-balance, and thus at a disadvantage. She swept her leg forward. The man's trigger finger tightened…

Fire flared into life along the path of Li's leg. Caught off guard, the man's hand went slack. His gun tumbled from his hand. Li's fire caught along his right pant leg, searing the flesh. He howled in pain as a fireball hit his groin full-force.

There was a pause as Li replaced her foot on the ground. Her mind blanked for a second, then was absorbed with the fact that she had just shot a fireball at someone's groin. It was an inside joke with her friends that Ru shot fireballs at the groins of anyone who tried to hurt Li. When Li got back home…

_You are never going to hear the end of this_, Ru-voice observed.

_Shut up, you. I'm not telling them_, Li retorted.

_They'll find out eventually. You're horrible at keeping secrets._

_Shuddup._

_I'm just saying…_

_Shut. Up. Now. Please._

Ru-voice fell silent. Deciding that counted as a victory, Li limped to the door. She glanced back at the room. The man with a flaming pant leg had managed to set his friend's clothing on fire as well. A whiff of charred flesh reached Li's nose.

They had witnessed her Firebending, she realized. If they survived, they might tell someone. Whoever they told could tell the Nations. Then Li's little secret would be out, and she would have to tell the Nations everything, and they would either think her crazy or lose what trust they had in her. She couldn't risk losing the Nations' friendship—aside from her enjoying having them as friends, they were all that was keeping Li off the streets.

She should kill them, Li realized. It would be the smart thing to do. They had been prepared to kill her, so it was only fitting that she be willing to do the same. Killing them was the smart thing to do.

Li took a step towards the men on the ground. Flames licked around her clenched right hand. She felt strangely calm. One blast would be enough to kill them…then a couple more could char the remains beyond recognition. Completely incinerating them would be the best route, but Li didn't know if she had the time for that. More fire coalesced around her hands.

One of the men looked up at her. His eyes were wide and terrified, mouth open in a silent scream. When he saw the fire around Li's hands he tried to push himself away from her. "M-monster!" he cried. "Demon!" Li took another step towards him, and he scrabbled at the floor, running into his friend. The fire on the other man caught in the scared man's hair, crisping it away.

With cold eyes, Li raised her hand.

* * *

An idiot. She was a total, utter idiot. Pele and Agni be her witnesses, she was a complete idiot. Why hadn't she killed those two men?! It would have been the smart thing to do. They knew about her Firebending. So why hadn't she killed them?!

But…the look in that man's eyes…just before she gave a killing blow, she wondered if that was how Kuzon had looked to the man who killed him. The thought made Li freeze where she stood. If she killed that man, she would be the same as the people who killed her little brother. She really would be a monster.

In no way was the man before her innocent like Kuzon had been, but once the parallel was drawn, Li couldn't dismiss it. Her mind started to find tiny details in the man's features that reminded her of Kuzon—the shape of his eyes, the way his chest heaved, how there was a chip on one of his teeth. She couldn't kill this man. It was suddenly impossible for her. No matter how different he was from Kuzon, Li felt like she was looking at her brother.

Without another word, Li turned away and left.

Now she was making her way down the hallway, trying to find a way out. She passed a window, and looked out. Men in green camouflage uniforms, with dark vests covered in pockets, were streaming into the compound. A small group detached from the main unit and made for the building Li was in: the rest headed for the other building, where Li had been taken to meet the old man with scary eyes. The men in the other building were putting up plenty of resistance, spraying bullets from the second-floor windows.

Li leaned forward, trying to see where the group heading towards her building would enter at. The window was shut, limiting her range of vision. She pushed on the window. It was stuck fast. That idea went up in flames. Maybe she could find her way to them from a lower floor?

All right, now she was looking for stairs. Li turned around, scanning the hallway for anything that looked like a stairwell. She saw nothing but doors. There was another hallway intersecting this one partway down: she could check down that way. If that failed, she would start looking behind doors.

Confident in her plan, however little time she had spent thinking it up, Li began to limp forward. She soon realized the flaw in her idea when her leg started to burn. Not literally burn, mind you, but it hurt worse than when she was first shot, or when the doctor took the bullet out.

"Aah!" Li slumped against the wall, hands going to her leg. They came away red and wet. She had reopened the wound. A dark stain was spreading over her jeans.

Bleeding out wouldn't be very helpful. There were men coming into the building, presumably men there to rescue her—Li didn't want to think about what might happen if they _weren't_ there to rescue her. They would have medical supplies. But how long would it take them to get to Li? At least one floor was below her, and that needed to be secure before they would move up. Securing a floor might take too long.

Oh, dear spirits. Li tried not to think too much about what she was going to do. With a steady inhalation and exhalation, she focused on the warmth of her body. It burned hot and fierce within her, fueled by the warmth of the sun. She needed perfect control for this. No immense blazes…just a small flame, as hot as she could make it. Focus on the fire…

Heat flowed down Li's arm and into her hand. The heat flicked out into flames, dancing around her fingers and swirling over her palm. Li curled her fingers in one by one until only the index finger was still extended. She sent all the fire to the tip of her finger, keeping a tight reign over it. No sudden flares occurred. That was good.

Exerting all her focus on the flame, Li compressed it into a smaller area. The red flames turned orange, then yellow. A few flickers of blue licked the very middle. A headache started in Li's mind as she kept the flame at the maximum temperature possible. Keeping her focus on the flame, she lowered her finger towards her bleeding wound.

Searing your own flesh to cauterize a wound is not pleasant. Li got the idea from stories the guards and soldiers back home told about battles. They always emphasized that it hurt like nothing ever did: Li finally realized why that was. She clenched her teeth against the urge to scream. On the end of her finger, the flame wavered back to orange briefly. With gargantuan effort, Li returned it to yellow and kept it burning.

Several times her jeans started to burn, but each time Li extinguished the flames. At last she was finished, and she let the fire dissipate into nothing. Her lungs heaved to suck in air. The headache was pounding against the back of her head. She would have killed for a drink of water: making her flames yellow-and-blue hot always dehydrated Li.

Her eyelids fluttered downwards several times. She was tired on top of everything else. Why wouldn't she be? It had been a while since she last slept, and she couldn't quite remember when she'd eaten. Maybe the men here to rescue her would have some food. That would be wonderful. Even America's disgusting burgers from McDonald's would taste delicious. And some fries, and a soda…the one thing from McDonald's she liked was the soda. All sugary and bubbly and intoxicating…yum.

Thoughts of food could wait, though. First she had to escape. Li didn't know if her leg would bear her weight still, and wasn't willing to risk it, so she found herself crawling down the hallway. The blow to her pride was nothing if she could get out.

After five minutes of dragging herself down the hallway, she heard the tramp of boots from up ahead. Her rescuers! They were here! Relief swept over Li. She struggled upright, a delighted grin spreading over her face, and debated what to say to them. It had to be witty, and funny…"What took you so long?" No, that might not go over so well with people she didn't know. How about…

The men rounded the corner, and Li's stomach sank. It was three of her captors. When they saw her alive they stopped and stared. One pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number, then spoke to the person on the other end. Realizing these men might try to kill her as well, Li began to scoot backwards. She didn't think to Firebend—she was too afraid. All she wanted was to get away from them.

Li's hand slipped, and she fell backwards. The man on the phone finished his conversation and closed the phone, then walked over to Li. He towered above her, larger than life, looking down with cruel eyes. "Stand up," he commanded.

"C-can't," Li stuttered. "My, my leg…" Her throat closed off as fear coursed through her. The blood in her veins felt like ice. She couldn't take her eyes off the man above her.

He grunted, and reached down. Li shrank back. His hands closed on her arms in a vice grip, and he hauled her upright. Li's weight fell on her bad leg for a brief second. Bolts of pain shot out from the wound. "Ah!"

Seeing Li was too hurt to walk, the man bent and slung her over his shoulder. Li immediately went limp, hoping not to jar her leg or wound it further. The man barked an order to his companions and they jogged to the stairs, at the end of the intersecting hallway. Shouts drifted to them from the first floor, but the man paid the noise no heed as they ran downstairs. A door outside was at the base of the stairs. It was slightly ajar: the man with Li over his shoulder kicked it open and rushed out.

Outside, the heat hit like a hammer. Li was sweating in seconds. She would need a bath once she was rescued, after food and water. It had been days, maybe a couple of weeks, since Li's last bath. The possibility that she might not be rescued was rejected as soon as she thought it, and any subsequent wonderings were banished to the far reaches of her mind. It was too frightening to think of anything else.

Some of the men attacking the compound caught sight of Li and her captors. One man tried to give chase, but a bullet to the leg downed him. He clutched his leg as he fell, shouting to his fellows and pointing. The man carrying Li broke into a sprint, heading for the building where Li had met the old man with the dark eyes. An involuntary shudder wracked Li's body as she recalled those eyes.

Tendrils of despair reached into Li's mind. She was being taken to the man with the dark eyes. He was going to kill her. These men were carrying her to her death.

Tears welled up in Li's eyes. She…she didn't want to die.

* * *

Fire Nation and United Republic sat in the garden of United Republic's house. A small table with a teapot and two teacups had been placed between their chairs. The sky above was getting dark as the sun of Wanban dipped towards the west. Air Temple Island had decided to meditate in his room before bed: Fire Nation would bet good money the door was locked.

A companionable silence had settled between Fire Nation and his daughter. The tea was delicious. Bugs darted amongst the plants of the garden, and the aroma of the flowers filled the air. Fire Nation leaned back in his chair, content to simply enjoy the moment. He hadn't been able to enjoy a moment for days, not since his decision to return to the mortal world.

There was a time when relaxing and enjoying himself was all he did. Memories of his days as a sage floated through Fire Nation's mind, and flickers of images from before then…of the times with his mother. He had so few memories of those days left, so few memories of his mother, Sun Warriors. She was strong and beautiful in his first memory. Young, filled with life, carrying her young son on her back as she hunted in the thick jungles—that was how Fire Nation liked to think of his mother. Not as the old, arthritic woman she became as the Fire Nation grew.

Lost in memories of his mother, Fire Nation didn't hear his daughter the first time she spoke. United Republic shook his arm, breaking his reverie, and he sat upright with a start. "What?"

"I asked, what do you plan to do when we return to the human world?" United Republic repeated.

"Go to our people," Fire Nation replied. "What else?"

"That sounds risky, Father." United Republic frowned. She lifted her teacup to her lips for a drink, and set it down carefully. "What will you do if our people don't recognize us?"

"They'll recognize us," Fire Nation said firmly. "You were still a child when we left the mortal realm, so I don't expect you to know this, but our citizens naturally trust us. Some part of them recognizes us for what we are and knows we can be trusted. Convincing them of what we are will be the challenge. After so long an absence, nobody will remember our kind's existence."

"Then how do we convince them?"

"By directing them to certain documents." Fire Nation smiled. "Many of my Fire Lords had their final words written down and placed in their tombs. I wrote most of those scrolls. Several contained detailed instructions from the Fire Lord to his heir on how to handle me. The contents of those scrolls should convince the skeptics."

"I see." United Republic hesitated. "Father…why do you want to return?"

Fire Nation's eyebrows raised. "Homesickness, I suppose. Why do you ask?"

"Well…it's just…" United Republic glanced at her feet. "I have to wonder…is it because of the Princess?"

"You mean the Fire Lord," Fire Nation corrected. "Even without a coronation, she is my rightful ruler. Use her proper title."

"Fine. Is it because of the _Fire Lord_?" United Nation's voice took a derisive edge. Fire Nation felt the corners of his mouth tug downwards. He schooled his expression into neutrality.

"And why would you think that?"

"She's injured, near death, at the North Pole," United Nations answered. "Do you think you can save her somehow? Are you planning to go haring off after her soul in the Spirit World?"

"Of course not," Fire Nation dismissed the thought. "Her bodyguard, the Avatar, and the Moon Spirit have gone to retrieve Li's soul." Saying her name made Fire Nation's heart thump. His mind's eye saw a smiling woman with long brown hair. "I only intend to be ready to greet her when she returns."

"Yeah. Sure."

His daughter's tone was beginning to annoy him. "And you don't believe me?" Fire Nation asked sharply. United Republic kept her gaze fixed on the ground. "My-Duyen. I asked you a question."

"Dad…" United Republic bit her lip. "You really like the Princess—I mean, the Fire Lord. Don't you?"

"Of course I do." The question bewildered Fire Nation. Why would he not like his ruler? Was his daughter hinting at something else? Should he come out and lay bare his feelings for the Fire Lord? Fire Nation never enjoyed talking about how he felt, and often dismissed it as a waste of time, but if his daughter wanted him to…

"She's a human," United Republic's eyes slid sideways to look at her father, then quickly returned to the ground.

"Your point?"

"My point is…she's only human," United Republic closed her eyes. "In sixty or eighty years, she'll be dead. I just don't want you to get attached to her and feel the pain of losing her."

Fire Nation finally understood his daughter's concern. She was worried that the death of his Fire Lord would destroy Fire Nation. A lighty, bubbly sensation welled up in Fire Nation's chest and spilled out of his mouth as laughter.

"I've loved and lost many Fire Lords before," he informed his daughter. "The pain of losing them is still fresh to me. But over the years, I have come to regard that pain as a blessing. It makes sure I never forget the humans I have cared for and lost." United Republic looked unconvinced. Lowering his voice, Fire Nation reached over and stroked his daughter's hair. "When the Fire Lord dies, I will be hurt. But before she dies, I intend to spend however long we have serving her with all my being. By doing so, I will have memories of joy and laughter to balance out the pain of loss."

"Still…" United Republic's eyes opened. Her gaze was distant, focused on nothing. "We will live forever, or close enough to forever that it feels like it. No matter how few humans we become close to, there are so many funerals in our futures."

"It will be worth it, my dear," Fire Nation assured his daughter. "Love your people and cherish your times with them, and it will be worth it."


	56. Rescue

**Oh my goodness, no. NO. This was supposed to be the last chapter of this arc. THE LAST CHAPTER. Where does this thing get off on not being the last chapter. WHERE. I'm typing like Gamzee did when he went murderously insane in Homestuck, aren't I. AREN'T I. Except for the proper nouns and starts of sentences. YOU GOTTA HAVE PROPER CAPITALIZATION, Y'KNOW. Okay, I'm just going to let you get to the chapter now. EXPECT MORE IN A HOPEFULLY SMALL AMOUNT OF TIME, BECAUSE APPARENTLY THIS ARC NEEDS AT LEAST ANOTHER CHAPTER. Maybe even two. IF IT NEEDS THREE...okay, I don't know what say there. I'M DONE. Hope you enjoy. HETALIA AND AVATAR AREN'T MINE. Yeah, I'm done.**

**OR AM I.**

**...Yeah, I am.**

* * *

While the attack on the compound commenced, the Nations waited outside by the helicopters. "We should be with them," America muttered. His eyes were fixed on the SEALs. Israel patted his shoulder, and when that didn't seem to help, sighed.

"You should have realized by now that there's no way our bosses are going to let us lead a raid into enemy territory," Pakistan said. "What if we get hurt, or captured?"

"My SEALs would never let that happen," America asserted.

"They can't control everything," Pakistan argued. "After all, they're only human. And despite some of us having superhuman abilities, we're essentially only as strong as humans ourselves. Would you want your boss to take the risk of heading in there?"

"That'd be awesome!" America's eyes glinted as he contemplated the idea. "Like how kings used to lead their men into battle! Dude, it'd be like that scene from Lord of the Rings, the one where Theodin leads the remnants of his men on one last charge out of Helmsdeep before Gandalf and Eomir show up with the rest of the riders, and—"

"No, it would not be!" Iran interrupted. "And the book was completely different, I'll have you know. Eomir was already with Theodin, for starters…but we're not discussing Tolkien right now," he added when he noticed Pakistan's glower, "we're waiting for the buildings to be cleared so we can go in and search for the kidnapped human, what's-her-face…"

"Li," Israel supplied.

"Oh yeah. Li." Iran shrugged. "Which building do you think she's in?"

"The smaller one," Pakistan pointed. "Satellite imagery caught two men escorting a Caucasian female out of it several days ago, and leading her back in half an hour later. It stands to reason that the Caucasian female was Li—how many other white girls are being held prisoner by Taliban-affiliated groups in compounds? Facial recognition comparing the video with footage of her entering the conference building in Tehran confirmed a match."

"It's too bad we don't have any pictures of her," Iraq added. "That would have sped up the facial recognition process."

Silence fell over the group again. Saudi Arabia was checking and double-checking his gun for any possible problems. Israel decided to do the same after a full minute of silence, and Afghanistan followed their example. Pakistan played with the ends of her hijab. Iran and Iraq started a rock-paper-scissors contest. America kept staring at the compound, an uncharacteristically serious look on his face.

Just as Iran lost the third round of rock-paper-scissors in a row, the radios crackled to life. "N-team, Building A has been secured. You are clear for entry."

Israel was the first to get her radio out and to her lips. "Roger that," she spoke into the device, then put it back in its holster on her hip and slid the safety of her pistol.

"Yes! Finally!" America crowed. He grasped his M16 rifle and all but charged into the compound, leaving the other Nations behind.

"No! Wait!" Saudi Arabia reached towards America. "The other building might not be—" A sudden torrent of bullets hit the ground right in front of America. Seeing the danger, America planted his forward foot on the ground and pushed himself back. Without stumbling, he ran out of range of the shooter. "—secured yet," Saudi Arabia finished. He led the rest of the Nations in entering the compound, staying close to the wall and keeping their eyes on the currently unsecured building. America joined them, his mouth stretched in a clueless grin.

"Say 'Well, that was fun,' and I will beat you over the head with my gun," Pakistan snarled. America pouted, but stayed silent.

Saudi Arabia held out a hand to stop the other Nations as they got within reach of the structure ingeniously named "Building A." Two American SEALs stood outside, eyes roaming the grounds for any new enemies. When they saw the Nations, they gave an "all clear" hand signal and beckoned them over. Saudi Arabia waved Iran forward, then Iraq, then the rest of the team, and brought up the rear himself. They reached the entrance to the building without incident.

"Inside should be clear," one of the SEALs informed Saudi Arabia. "Our men have cleared out each floor and restrained any insurgents or civilians present. They didn't find any prisoners, but it's possible your girl was moved."

"Let's hope she wasn't," Afghanistan muttered. "I've spent too long on this stupid goose chase already." Pakistan rolled her eyes at him.

"Come on," Saudi Arabia urged, "let's get going. Where are your teammates restraining the people found in this compound?" The last sentence was directed at the SEALs.

"There's a room in the northwest corner," one answered. "Should be there."

"Thank you." Saudi Arabia retook his position at the head of the group and started for the northwest corner of the compound. He kept his M16 ready as he walked—caution was always best, after all. You could never be too paranoid when in enemy territory. Israel and America pulled up the rear, glancing over their shoulders regularly to ensure nobody was trying to sneak up on them from behind.

As soon as they reached the room in the northwest corner of the compound, everyone relaxed. One of the SEALs stood in front of the door, with another SEAL visible from the door. A small group of women was clustered on one side of the room, and several men were tied up on the other side. Two men, with fresh burns all over their bodies, were groaning on makeshift pallets in the middle of the room.

"What happened to them?" Iran wrinkled his nose at the stench of burned flesh. Afghanistan and Israel paled. Pakistan covered her nose and mouth with a sleeve and walked over to the two men. She knelt and moved a bit of gauze away from one man's leg. Half of his limb's skin had been completely burned away, leaving yellow fat exposed to the air in huge blotches. Everything else had been melted into a red-and-black slag. Yellow-white bones peeked out from under the charred flesh at some points. Blisters had raised on the few patches of skin not turned to charcoal.

"Must have been quite the fire." Pakistan's forehead creased as she thought. This was a brutal way to attack someone. None of the SEALs were equipped with flamethrowers, so obviously they hadn't done this. Could someone from the compound have set fire to the men? What information might they have to make their deaths necessary? "Where were they found?"

"We found them in one of the upstairs rooms," a SEAL replied. "There was a bed in the room, so we used the sheets to smother the flames, then carried them down here. I don't figure they'll last very long."

"Definitely not," Pakistan agreed. She covered the burned man's leg and straightened. His face was intact, unlike his friend's, and she repositioned herself by his head. "I'd say the fire actually caught in their skin. Most of this man's skin was burnt, and his friend here lost most of his head. You can tell it's serious when there are yellowish patches, or when the skin is entirely black."

"Should we radio for a medical helicopter?"

"Nah. I don't think he'll survive, even if he gets medical help. Why waste good resources?" Pakistan tapped the man's cheek. "Did you give them any painkillers?"

"Don't have any on me, ma'am. Should I have?" The SEAL inquired.

"No, it's good you didn't. Painkillers would have dulled his mind, made it harder for him to answer questions, and probably make it impossible to wake him up." Pakistan slapped the man a little harder. "Dear Allah, do I need to poke at his burns to get this guy out of it?"

"Why would you want to wake him up?" America blurted.

"Because whoever attacked him either wanted him to die, or didn't know how hot the fire they were using was," Pakistan replied. "I don't smell accelerants, so whoever did this used something naturally hot, like a blowtorch."

"What about a flamethrower?" Iran stepped over, his shirt pulled up to cover his nose.

"That's seeming more and more unlikely to me by the minute." Pakistan growled at the unconscious man and hit him with all her force. His body jerked, and his eyes opened. "Finally!" The man began to babble in a mix of Arabic and several local languages, eyes wide with fear. "Okay, calm down, we can't understand you if you don't speak clearly. What happened to you?"

"Fire…" The man croaked the word in English.

"I could tell you were burned already. Who burned you?" Pakistan pressed. She got no answer, only a cough. Blood speckled the man's lips. That in itself was a good indicator the man was not going to remain in the mortal world for long. "Was it one of your people?"

"Sure wasn't one of us," the SEAL interjected. "None of us used any explosives, and we don't come equipped with flamethrowers."

"Obviously it wasn't a flamethrower, I'm this close to him and don't smell gas or napalm," Pakistan snapped. "Let him talk!"

"It…it was…" the man coughed again, some of the blood spraying up onto Pakistan's face. "Girl…"

"The girl you had prisoner here?" Pakistan's tone sharpened. "She burned you?"

"Yes…"

"How? Did she get a lighter from one of you?" Pakistan shook the man gently when there was no response. "Answer me! How did she burn you?!" The man convulsed as he hacked up more blood, then stilled. His eyes dulled—he was dead.

Pakistan shook him violently, making sure he was dead, then shoved the body away from her in disgust. "Why do they always die just when they're about to tell you something important?!" she raged. "All we know is that some girl did it! It might not even have been the girl we were talking about!"

"At least we learned something," Israel pointed out. "Look, let's check the rest of the building. Maybe Li's still here, hiding somewhere."

"No, if she were here, she would have found her way to the SEALs somehow," Saudi Arabia stroked his chin. "I think it more likely that she was taken elsewhere."

"To the other building?" Afghanistan winced. "The SEALs are still trying to clear the first floor."

"All the more likely that Li has been taken there, then," Saudi Arabia asserted. "That building is larger. The leader of this group is likely there. He would want the hostage nearby, in case he needed to negotiate an escape for her life."

"Makes sense to me," Iraq agreed.

"So…we're going to the other building?" America perked up. The other building was still dangerous. Danger meant the chance of someone being a hero and saving everyone else. America liked being a hero. It was how the Iraq War had started in the first place.

"Yes," Saudi Arabia sighed, "but only after the SEALs have cleared out the first floor. Until then, we wait."

"Aw man…"

* * *

Li was dropped onto the ground like a sack of potatoes. Her leg struck the floor, sending daggers of pain out from the wound. She had fallen onto her side, with enough force that there would certainly be bruises forming.

"It seems our time runs short," the man with the dark eyes spoke. A woman was huddled next to him, and several more young men were standing around the room. Li pushed herself up, careful not to let her leg get underneath her, and glanced around. Shouts drifted from downstairs—this building was being stormed, too.

So it came down to whether she could hold off on them killing her until the attackers arrived. "Yeah," Li replied for lack of anything witty to say. Witty wasn't Li's cup of tea, though she wished it was. "Any more questions for me? You'll have to hurry."

"I never asked for your name," the man commented. There was no emotion behind it—he threw the words out there without a care, like the answer didn't matter to him.

"It's Li." Silence followed Li's words. She glanced around, wondering if anyone was going to try something. Nobody moved. "I never caught your name."

"Osama. Osama bin Laden."

"Nice name." Now she was getting a reaction. Several of the men looked surprised. Why? Should Li have said something different? Was this man famous here? Did Li slip up?

"You are not a Nation," Osama stated. Li nodded. "Then it appears you have been deceiving us. I had thought, when you raised the room's temperature, you might be more than human. Are you?"

"No, I'm all human," Li answered. Her heartbeat picked up. The temperature thing, how had she forgotten about that? Obviously this man—Osama—had noticed! Could Li excuse it somehow?

"Then I seem to have made a grave error," Osama sighed. He closed his eyes and raised his hand: one of the men standing next to him raised a gun and pointed it at Li. "If you are not a Nation, you have little use to me. Unless you have any convincing arguments as to why I should let you live, I will have my son shoot in ten seconds. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six…"

Li's mind blanked. She didn't know what to tell them that wouldn't get her in more trouble. Bad enough she left those two men burning alive without giving them the mercy of a quick death, but if she told these people about her Firebending…no, she couldn't. They would want her to use it against the rescuers, and then the Nations would find out, and they would start asking questions, and…and…the Nations!

"I know America," Li blurted. Osama stopped counting and gestured to his son. The younger man frowned, but lowered his weapon. "He's the reason I was at the conference in the first place. There was a package…something of personal value that wound up in my care, and I was returning it. We didn't expect there to be an attack."

"This is of interest to me," Osama nodded. The shouts from the lower floors got louder. "What do you have to tell me about America?"

"He…he has homes all over America," Li searched her mind for more information, "but spends most of his time in New York. McDonald's is his favorite restaurant. He'll eat pizza or tacos if he can't get McDonald's, and he loves ice cream. Sometimes he eats hot dogs for a while so he doesn't get sick of burgers. If you let him, he'll play video games all night."

"None of this is of interest to me." Osama leaned forward. "Give me something I could use."

"What would that be?" Li stalled, praying that the shouting from the floor below would reach the top floor soon. A woman screamed, and Li flinched. That could be _her_ screaming. She could die here if she didn't play her cards right and keep Osama's son from peppering her with bullets. The reality of it was an icy weight in her stomach, reminding her how fragile she was. Just one well-placed bullet was all it took to kill someone…

"His address. Or perhaps somewhere he frequents, somewhere I could slip an agent," Osama suggested.

"How do you plan to order a hit on America when you're dead?" Li regretted the words immediately, but there it was. Osama was clearly the leader here, and when the forces downstairs reached them, Osama wouldn't survive. He knew about the Nations, and he had the power to order an attack on the Nations. Such a dangerous man surely wouldn't be allowed to live.

"Psh. You think the Americans will kill me?" Osama sneered. "They are soft. Their preoccupation with justice and due process makes them weak. Even if they do not hold a trial for me, I am too valuable to kill."

Li's thoughts turned to Kuzon. _He_ was too valuable to kill. Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, and a child to boot, who would have thought to kill him? But the Tóngyī Shìjiè did. They didn't think of the political power to be had by controlling the rightful Fire Lord, or how the death of a child would seem. Nor did they realize that by killing Kuzon, they had all but killed Li herself for a while…just a while, until Ru snapped Li out of her daze.

If Kuzon wasn't valuable enough to leave alive, why would anyone bother with Osama?

"Nobody is too valuable," Li whispered.

"What was that?" Osama snapped.

"I said, nobody is too valuable," Li repeated. "You'd be surprised. Some of the most important people from my home were." There was no emotion in Li's voice. She felt hollowed out, with a sickly fire burning in the cavity where her stomach should have been.

"And who might those people be?" Osama frowned at Li's words. Had he assumed she was American? That sounded likely. She had pretended to be one of America's states.

"You've never heard of them." Li stopped seeing the room around her, stopped hearing the shouts of men below and the tramp of feet and the muttering of the others in the room. Her mind's eye soared over the caldera of the Fire Nation's Royal City, down to the harbor and out over the sea to the Earth Kingdom and Ba Sing Se and Wulong Forest and everything south or in between. She had wanted to dream of home all the time she was a captive, but no dreams were forthcoming. Memories were all she had left now.

The shouts were louder. Feet tramped up stairs, and there were men shouting down the hall. "Our time runs short," Osama said. "We might as well kill you now." Next to him, Osama's son raised his gun. "Goodbye."

Li's heart dropped to somewhere around her ankles. She was staring down the barrel of the gun, that gaping dark hole, unable to move…and then she was rolling forward, pushing with her good leg and pulling the bad one in close to her body so it couldn't be hurt any worse. Surprised, Osama's son flinched back. His finger tightened on the trigger, but the bullets sprayed harmlessly over the floor. Someone underneath their feet screamed: apparently the bullets hadn't missed a target.

As Osama's son let go of the trigger, Li bowled into legs and reached up. She snatched a knife hanging off his belt and slashed at his legs. Wounded, the man stumbled back. Li turned to one side and grabbed Osama by the beard.

"Hi," she smiled at him. The knife pressed against his throat, under his beard. "How ya doin'?"

…Oh spirits, what had she just done?

Fortunately for Li, the doors burst open and someone shouted, "Stand down!"

* * *

Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan had to hold America back as the SEALs stormed up the stairs. "We're not allowed to put ourselves in harm's way," Iran reminded America. "Just wait for them to secure the area. I haven't heard any gunshots—" In a brilliant display of timing, a machine gun went off overhead. "Um. Okay. Hopefully that was our guys."

"I _hate_ staying at the back," America grumbled.

"So do I," Pakistan scowled. "Those guys thought they could hide out in my home? I'd like to teach them a lesson about that! …But I won't, because if I get injured it could have bad implications for my people."

"Yeah, but you're not the one who got Li into all this," America's gaze drifted to the floor. "I'd like to try and fix this myself, if I could."

"That's almost as funny as Afghanistan trying to be competent," Pakistan snorted. Afghanistan sent her his best glare, which she ignored. "At least you were never one of these Taliban guys."

"Neither was I!" Afghanistan protested. "They controlled my government! Why does nobody understand that part?!"

"It's okay," Israel reassured him. "Iran probably still thinks I'm the one who sabotaged his nuclear plant last year."

"You or America," Iran shook his head in disgust. "You're the biggest suspects."

"What about China? Why does nobody think he might be responsible?" America rolled his eyes. "Or my brother, what's-his-name…"

"But you two _did_ object to Iran developing his own nuclear program," Iraq pointed out.

"Me and a bunch of other guys!" America glanced up the stairs mournfully. "Think we can go up yet?"

"Not until we get the all-clear," Saudi Arabia insisted. "I'm not having you charge into the middle of a standoff and start a shootout."

"Dude, what makes you think I'll do that?" America scoffed. "I'm not a total idiot."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Pakistan quipped. Afghanistan tried to elbow her into silence, and was smacked in the gut for his troubles. Things would have devolved if Saudi Arabia hadn't pulled Afghanistan out of the way.

"Act like mature adults, or I'm sending you out of here," Saudi Arabia warned. "Are you two really going to squabble like children when there's a raid going on just above our heads?"

"Um, guys," Israel tapped America's arm. "The all-clear signal just went off."

"Huh?" America's head whipped around. "Is it safe to go up? Did they find Li?"

"I don't know, I'm not up there." America paid no attention to Israel's words, charging up the stairs two at a time in his eagerness to find out what was happening. "He didn't hear a word I said, did he?" Israel asked the rest of the team.

"Nope," Iran shook his head and followed America's example. Iraq was hot on his brother's heels, with Pakistan and Afghanistan soon after.

Saudi Arabia sighed. "Have you ever had the feeling that you're the only adult in the room?" he asked Israel.

"No," Israel replied. "A lot of the time you're in the room too." Saudi Arabia chuckled and started up the stairs. Israel glanced about, making sure nobody was lurking around any corners, and went after him.

She arrived on the landing fifty seconds after Saudi Arabia, and bumped into a soldier. Both of them went for their weapons before realizing there was no danger. The SEAL relaxed first: Israel took a moment longer, and was embarrassed when she realized she had her gun in her hand. "Sorry," she apologized. "What's going on?"

"A bit of a situation," the SEAL pointed to the left, where America, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan were talking with the SEALs' commander. America was visibly upset, while the rest ranged from concerned to thoughtful. There were three men standing at an ajar door ten feet down from the other Nations.

"Is there a problem with the insurgents?" Israel felt a tug of worry. "Has anyone been hurt?"

"You should go talk with your team," the SEAL suggested. "They'll fill you in." Israel thanked him and hurried over to the other Nations.

"We have a serious problem," the commander was saying. "The hostage we came here to search for has three guns pointed at her head. If you try to enter, they'll shoot her."

"Not if we shoot them first," Pakistan argued. "Aren't you guys supposed to be elite military forces? Where's your backbone? Just storm the place!"

"It's not as simple as that," the commander insisted. "She has a knife to their leader's throat. If we try anything at all, they'll act to save him first, and we can't kill three men in rapid succession. We'd try to negotiate, but they want safe passage out and a guarantee that we won't take them into custody after they leave."

"Please tell me I did _not_ just hear him say that Li has a knife on some guy," Israel groaned.

"Hey, you're here!" America noticed her. "And, uh…she sorta does."

"I'd like to know who this leader is," Iran added. "His men are surrounding him and blocking his face. If he's really high up the al-Qaeda or Taliban command chain, he might be valuable."

"Dead men aren't very valuable," Afghanistan reminded Iran. "First we need that girl to back down. If she kills the leader, they'll kill her too, and this will have all been a waste of time. America, you know her best, you go try to negotiate."

"Have you forgotten the order to stay out of harm's way?" Saudi Arabia scowled. "The American SEALs are more than capable of handling this situation. We should stand back and let them do their jobs."

"No, we _need_ to go in there." America looked around the group of Nations. "Maybe we can make a difference. I'm not made for standing around when there's something I could be _doing_!"

"We're all well aware of that, Alfred," Saudi Arabia sighed. Since there were humans around, he used America's human name. It wouldn't do to let the SEALs learn about the Nations, even if they were more trustworthy than a bunch of terrorists.

"A head-on attack would just get Li killed," Israel thought aloud, "and probably the rest of us as well."

"What we need right now is to diffuse the situation in there," Saudi Arabia agreed. "Do you think they'll lower their guns if Li agrees to put down her knife?"

"Depends." Pakistan started to chew on her lip. "Maybe we should find out what they know first? That could give us an edge, let us figure out how to proceed."

"But will they tell us what they know?" Iran wrinkled his brow. "And how will we find out?"

"America's probably the only person who'll like this," Iraq sighed, "but I think one of us needs to go talk to them." America's face lit up.

"New plan," Pakistan rolled her eyes.


	57. Rescued

**EDIT: So, I'm probably gonna be going over the story and editing/completely rewriting chapters. If you see an alert about a new chapter but don't see any, that's why. Thanks for indulging me.**

**Hetalia and Avatar belong to Himaruya and Bryke respectively. Additional info at the end of the chapter. Oh sweet Pele this took way too long to finish =_=**

* * *

Israel placed her hands on her head, glanced down to check her bulletproof vest, and walked forward.

"I just want to talk."

The cornered Taliban terrorists raised their guns. Israel stopped moving and repeated herself, this time in Arabic. One of the men began to lower his gun until he realized his companions were still on alert. An older woman had pressed herself against the wall to the left.

Li was partially blocked from view by the Talibans surrounding her and the leader of the group. Israel caught a glimpse of the leader's long beard and his robe, but that was it. He was an older man, judging from the gray and white in his beard. His hand raised, and he spoke. "Let her through." Israel stepped forward again. The terrorists lowered their guns and stepped aside. She saw who she was dealing with.

For a moment, she froze. Osama bin Laden himself sat on the floor, his back pressed against a pile of cushions, with a knife at his throat. Li looked like hell – her hair was oily and matted, there was a burn on her leg where she'd taken a bullet during the attack weeks earlier, and she was generally filthy. Israel was tempted to rush over, pull Li away from bin Laden, and kill the man himself. Tempted only, though.

"Good day," Osama spoke. His voice made Israel's skin crawl. "Who might you be?" Li looked at Israel with wide eyes.

"You may call me…Hadassah," Israel supplied.

"Hadassah…" Osama verbally caressed the world. Israel wanted to throw up. "A lovely name. Israeli, is it not?" Since opening her mouth would likely make her throw up, Israel nodded instead. "How very interesting. What is an Israeli woman doing in Pakistan with American military forces?"

"I'm a diplomat," Israel lied. Well, it wasn't a total lie. She functioned as a diplomat quite often during her work. "We knew there was a hostage here, so I was called in with my team. If you'll lower your weapons and surrender, we can guarantee you won't be treated badly."

"Hmph. Surrender to the Americans?" Osama sneered. "I would rather die here, Hadassah." Israel twitched at his use of her human name. She should have thought up something completely different. "My counter-offer is this: allow us safe passage out of here, and I will release the hostage when we are away."

"Hey. I'm right here," Li spoke up. Israel noted how her voice wavered. "And I have a knife on you. Maybe you should listen to Is—Hadassah."

Osama's lips curled upwards. "You may have a knife at my throat, but my son has a gun pointed at your head. The advantage lies with me."

"Li, let me do the talking," Israel urged. "If she puts down the knife, will you have your son lower his gun?"

"Only if she lowers the knife," Osama ceded. His eyes flickered to his son briefly, meeting the young man's questioning glance. Then he fixed his attention on Li.

For a moment, Li looked like she might Osama's throat. Her hand tightened on the knife hilt. But then her eyes met Osama's. Li's eyes widened a fraction, and she relaxed her grip on the knife. Israel knew the effect men like Osama could have on the unsuspecting. He was powerful, an alpha male who got his way no matter what. Li, from what Israel knew, was a scared young woman who didn't understand half of anything she saw. The balance of power there was obvious.

Li's knife hand fell away, the knife slipping from her grip to thud on the floor. She pushed herself away from Osama. Her eyes slid to Osama's son, who lowered his gun, true to his father's instructions.

"Okay. We're all good here." Israel's eyes flickered from Li to Osama. Li looked so vulnerable, so scared, now. "Now let's talk about our options."

"Let us go, and we will give you the hostage," Osama replied.

"Not gonna happen." Israel gritted her teeth. "Put down your weapons and surrender. We won't harm any of you, and medical treatment will be made available for those who need it. Please. I don't want this turning into a shoot-out."

"And I will not surrender," Osama insisted. His eyes glinted in a manner Israel didn't like. "So you are left with little choice but to allow me to go free."

"You think we can let you go free? You?" Israel raised her voice so everyone outside could hear her. "You're Osama bin Laden!"

"DUDE!" America yelled outside. Other voices started to mutter, and there was a distinct, "Shut up, idiot!" that Israel thought was from Pakistan. Osama's eyes narrowed.

"Can it be…you didn't know I was here?" he asked. Israel declined answering. "You didn't, did you? If you had, you'd have brought a larger force."

"Our forces are large enough," Israel insisted. "We could take you without a problem."

"But we still have a hostage." Osama gestured to Li. "And if things come to violence, she might be harmed. So we find ourselves at an impasse."

Israel cast another look at Li. "How did she burn her leg?" Israel asked.

Osama frowned. "I honestly cannot say."

"Um, I did that myself," Li volunteered. All eyes turned to her. "The bullet wound reopened, and I didn't want to lose too much blood, so…"

"Where did you get a fire?" Israel shot a suspicious glance at Osama.

"Two of his men were going to kill me…one of them had a lighter," Li volunteered. "I took it from him."

"Ah." Israel blinked. So Li had burned those men with a lighter she stole from one of them. That was one mystery solved. "And where are these men?"

"I…I sort of set them on fire." Li looked off to one side. She hesitated, then added, "It was while I took the lighter away from the guy. He set his sleeve on fire by accident, and fell on the other man, which set him on fire and…yeah."

"Okay. Nice to know." Israel turned her attention back to Osama, her eyes flickering to Li one last time. Was it just her imagination, or was Li lying about something? No, not important right now. She could think it over later. At the moment, diffusing the situation and getting Li out safely while getting Osama out in chains was most important.

Israel suppressed a shiver as she met Osama's eyes. He was regarding her with amusement, completely at ease, sure he had the upper hand. Osama knew, she realized. Osama knew she was Israel. He'd wanted a Nation, and after making a mistake and getting Li, he finally had one.

Damn. She was probably the worst person to have come in. It should have been Saudi Arabia…but no, she had to insist that she was qualified and could do this, that she could be impartial. Israel had too much investment in the outcome of this negotiation to be impartial. Taliban operations hadn't affected her people as much as they had Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan, but they had contributed to the hardships she faced. And Israel had spoken with Li, so she felt a small responsibility for the girl that the others didn't.

No time to bemoan her choices now. Israel relaxed as many muscles as she could and stared Osama down. "Lay down your weapons and surrender. That's my only offer."

"We cannot accept such terms," Osama shrugged.

"Fine." Then Israel did the hardest thing she could…she turned around and walked out of the room.

* * *

Li stared after Israel's retreating back, her heart sinking. What was Israel doing? Why would she leave? Was this Osama person really so valuable that Israel would sacrifice Li for a chance to capture him?

"Fool," Osama snorted as Israel disappeared around the door. "What does she think to accomplish? We have the hostage, not them." Li glanced sideways at him, then returned her gaze to the door. Israel would come back, right? She wasn't leaving Li to be killed…right?

"Should we kill her?" A guard gestured to Li.

"No. If we do, we will lose our bargaining chip," Osama replied. His lips twitched up. "But let us give them something to think about." That didn't sound good. Li eased herself around to keep an eye on Osama. "Rasul, cut off her hand."

Spirits. One of the men by Osama grinned and pulled a knife from his belt. He advanced towards Li, who had at least three guns pointed at her, brandishing the knife. Li's mind blanked.

Fortunately for Li, when her mind wasn't working, her body knew enough to take over.

As the man – Rasul, presumably, though Li wasn't really thinking about that at the moment – reached down towards Li, Li reached up towards him. She caught his wrist, and his subsequent surprise made it simple to pull him down. Her elbow caught him in the gut. Rasul blanched at the impact and lost his grasp on the knife. It fell to the ground, where it was quickly retrieved by Li.

Now armed, Li swung her weapon at Rasul's head. Her intent was to stab him in the ear or neck, which was always painful and usually resulted in the crippling or exsanguination of the subject, but he shifted and she got the temple instead. Also outside her plans was the fact that she had picked the knife up wrong, and what she thought was blade turned out to be hilt. Despite her mistakes, the overall result was what she had intended: Rasul fell unconscious. Well, she had wanted him dead, not unconscious, but he would serve the same purpose either way.

The momentum of the strike to Rasul's temple helped Li roll over so he didn't land on top of her. Instead, she landed atop him, and kept rolling towards the closest man with a gun. Her move had bought a second of stunned silence from the others in the room, but that hadn't lasted long. Bullets zinged around her. She collided with the legs of the nearest guard and knocked him off balance. A kick of her good leg – part of her knew that her burned leg would feel terrible when this was over, and she was keeping its usage minimal – brought the man down. He fell atop Li, who had rolled onto her side so he wouldn't knock the wind out of her.

A bullet hit the man Li had just knocked down, and he grunted. Li grabbed him and partially pushed his body off of her, rearranging him to make a better meat-shield. The other men didn't seem to care that their friend was being hit and kept firing. Two bullets made it through his body and grazed Li. She ignored the pain. Adrenaline was useful for that.

Outside the room, the commotion had been noted. Two men appeared at the door in camouflage clothing. They took half a second to get the gist of things and started firing. Israel appeared behind them, wearing her olive-green military uniform. She was quickly pulled out of the way by someone still hidden, and replaced by more men in camouflage. Terrorists started to fall left and right, the bullets directed at Li thinning: she stayed curled up underneath her unconscious human shield, thinking of nothing but how nice it would be to get out of this alive.

And…silence. Li raised her head an inch to peer around and liked what she saw. Her captors lay on the ground, groaning or unconscious, after being sprayed with...not bullets? One of the pieces of ammunition rolled near Li, who snatched it up.

"What in Pele's name?" Li whispered.

"Felt balls," one of the camouflage-clad men explained, seeing Li's interest. "They don't kill, but if you get hit in the right spots you'll be unconscious. Hurts like hell, too."

"And…you didn't just attack them before because…?" Li's mind was having a hard time grasping that the danger was gone. She pushed Rasul off of her but stayed low.

"Why waste ammunition when you can get them to surrender?" Any further debate on the point was dismissed as America, Israel, and five others Li recognized from the conference at Tehran burst into the room. America pushed the soldiers aside, their protests and exclamations at his strength unheeded, to dive at Li. Still on hyper-alert from the shootout moments before, Li rolled out of the way. More soldiers started to enter from outside, their attention on the terrorists.

"Oof! Li!" America recovered his bearing. "You're okay!"

"Watch where you jump!" Li shouted. Her adrenaline high wore off and the pain returned, the pain from her bullet grazes and leg especially. She'd had worse before, much worse, but Li was unused to sustained pain. Spirits above, why couldn't there be Healers in this stupid world?

"Are you okay?" Israel knelt beside Li. "Your leg…"

Israel's presence served to remind Li of that Nation's departure, barely a minute before. "You!" Li rounded on her, jarring her leg. "Gah…you! Why did you leave?!"

"We needed to talk strategy." The answer didn't satisfy Li, but she could understand how strategy might warrant some discussion. "And we didn't expect _him_ to be here," Israel added, glancing over to Osama bin Laden. "That threw a wrench into our plans. If he hadn't been here and negotiations had failed, I was supposed to cover you and yell for the SEALs outside to burst in."

"Cover me?" Li frowned. "Wouldn't that be dangerous?"

"We'd be on the ground," Israel told her. "And, uh…" Her eyes flickered to the soldiers, who were examining the unconscious men all over the room. She dropped her voice to a whisper. "Ordinary wounds don't affect Nations for very long," she confided.

"Oh." An interesting fact. Li was further touched that Israel would be willing to take the pain of multiple bullet wounds to protect someone she barely knew. "Thank you, then." Her anger couldn't stand in the face of such a fact: it never had a base in anything, really. She was just distressed at seeing Israel walk away when Li was in danger and needed help. Lashing out came instinctively when the danger was gone and Li was still worked up.

Coming down off the rush of adrenaline and fear, Li realized two things: first, she wanted Ru more than anything, and second, she was about to cry. The first added fuel to the second's fire, to her dismay. This was the first time she had been in fear of her life and not had Ru to comfort her immediately afterwards. Ru's absence was further expounded by Israel's next actions, exactly what Ru would have done had she been there – the Nation leaned forward and hugged Li.

It was too much. Li burst into tears and pressed against Israel, her hands clutching the front of Israel's uniform. "It's okay," Israel murmured. "Let it out." She rubbed Li's back with one hand. Li's response was to bury her face in Israel's shoulder and start crying all the harder. Every bit of fear, desperation, and pain she'd felt in the past two weeks came back to Li and demanded to be let out through the ever-fun medium of tears.

"Uh…is she okay, then?" America ventured. Israel looked him in the eye and raised an eyebrow. Understanding the message, America turned to the other Nations. "Why don't we help take custody of these bad guys?"

"Just hand me some cuffs," another Nation replied. She was the only female in the group beside Israel. "And while you're at it, explain to me how the shootout started?"

"I heard bin Laden tell someone to cut off her hand," a SEAL volunteered. "Guess she didn't take it very well?" He pointed to Li. "Made things pretty simple."

"'Cut off her hand'?" the female Nation echoed. "Okay. Forget cuffs. Where'd I put my combat knife?"

"Lay off, P – Nadira," one of the male Nations groaned. "Bad enough Am - _Alfred_'s SEALs did the mission. Just watch, he's gonna vanish, or worse…Alfred's gonna parade him around in front of the whole world boasting about how he nabbed the greatest terrorist of all time by himself."

"Not by myself!" America protested. "You guys helped a little!"

"Yeah. A 'little.'" The woman – Nadira? – rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I'm going to radio the helicopter, tell it we need transport to a hospital. You boys finish up in here. And Is – _Hadassah_," she forced the name out, "bring the girl out when she's done crying. The chopper shouldn't take too long."

"Okay," Israel called after Nadira as the latter left the room. Li's sobbing had subsided to sniffles and hiccups, which was probably a good sign. "Hey, Li? Can you stand?"

"N-no," Li forced out. "My leg…"

"Gotcha. Ame - Alfred, little help?" Israel requested. America reached forward and grabbed Li around the waist, then hoisted her up as Israel released her grip. Li's hold on Israel's neck loosened momentarily in surprise, allowing America to sling her over his shoulder, much to Li's consternations. Fortunately her aversion to physical contact had waned in the two months since her arrival.

"Who's coming?" America asked.

"I'll stay behind," one of the male Nations said. He looked to be the oldest, with a thick mustache and the start of a beard. His gaze flickered over to the prone body of Osama bin Laden. "Go ahead – I'll meet you at the hospital later."

"Okay! Let's go!" America charged out the door before seeing if anyone would follow him. Li, slung over his shoulder and thus with a good view of the room they were leaving, saw the Nation that chose to stay walk over to Osama and unsheathe his knife.

* * *

**Okay. Fire Lily is officially on temporary hiatus (not like it wasn't before, ha) until I can a. get the time to write some more and b. figure Real Life things out. Please note that this is the end of the Middle East arc and such.**

**Yeah, I'm outta stuff to say. Off to class with me…**


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